Ah, but with no children you're in eco-credit. You can get a sports car without feeling guilty about the environment as you're saving all the CO2 from toys, clothes, food, travel etc for the children.

And here I was thinking that most people in the UK thought we were overpopulated both because of landmass and because the world's population is already a drain on the planet's resources...

Perhaps you should get child allowance and/or benefits if you adopt, if you have your own no.

EXACTLY - I don't have any and so feel no Green Pangs of guilt if I fly, have a gas guzzler etc. The ultimate Eco Warrior symbol is not to have kids

I do have one, but still feel no Green Pangs of guilt if I fly, have a gas guzzler etc.
I'm still not 100% convinced climate change is man made. (Look at previous interglacials people.)

Dont kid yourself that the public sector get it so easy. For years now the benefits of the pension have been slowly taken away and with single status a vast majority of employees are having salaries cut. Add to this the constant threat of redundancies over the last couple of years and massive cost saving targets (all under Brown by the way) and it all adds up to not a very nice time.

The ones gaining in public sector are your high paid director types IMO. Payoffs, big salaries, etc. They're laughing. Yet when measures come in to save money its the little guys who get hit the hardest.

I would like to see less waste in the public sector and I do see people with jobs who would struggle to hold the same job in the private sector but thats the exception not the rule where I work.

Personally, I'd like to see the "defence" budget cut radically.
I'd like to see the benefits system re-gigged to make it harder to live off them (perhaps having to be interviewed once a week and having to reapply every month, or something.
Child benefits I don't have a problem with (unless they are being taken advantage of). I know it helped me get through school, and has helped my future. I pay tax and will eventually pay at least an amount of the money back.
I think the education system should be changed to, it's obvious that sending 50% of students to uni isn't a good idea, so do something else with them instead.
Control immigration similar to that of Australia - If you've got a job or valuable skill, jump aboard! Should stop people coming over for just the benefits.

So yes, for me:
Cut the defence budget heavily
Cut back on benefit abusers
Rejig the education system
Immigration control

Being in the frame of mind I'm in at the moment, there have been a few comments I would like to take issue with.

*Heather - you might want to sit forward on your chair for this*

WTF is this attitude towards kids man - chill out. I'm having a hard enough time of it without you going off on one. Just remember it was me who paid for your education, health service etc so just because some of us choose to have kids, don't think you're any less of a parasite.

As for public sector pensions - gold plated????? I would be happy with brass or even aluminium at this stage in my career. Veato is right - it's the first to third tier managers that have this 'bullet proof' pension. Did you know that last year I got less than 2% of a pay rise whilst the managers (with their separate negotiating body) managed to secure a whopping 10%??? Now 10% of £150 grand (which 5 punters are paid in my authority) is 75% of my total salary. Don't make the mistake and tar every public sector employee with the same brush.

The system is not perfect, it is biased in some areas but my two kids are going to grow up in life paying their dues and contributing to us all in our old age - or indeed any age.

Al

Wow. You got a pay rise. Some of us have had pay freezes for the past two years and have been told to look forward to another one next year.
There's always someone better/worse off than you (and I am including myself in that 'you').

Mark

Well your pensions will be the first to suffer, none of this early retirement. Even an end to final salary replacing it with average salary which would actually benefit the majority of workers. Though that might be in other legislation.

Pay freeze? Lucky sod, we lost a month's salary this year...

I have to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I go to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when I get home, Dad and me mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah. And I lost a month's salary... (8-p)

The 85 year rule is already gone. That one went under Labour.

Whilst I do consider myself fortunate to have got any pay rise last year, local government has now caught up with the real world and we have a 3 year pay freeze. I understand there will always be someone worse off than I am. That thought does not fill me with joy and I apologise if I have offended any of you.

Dave - they are talking about mandatory cutting of hours which will amount to the loss of just over a months wages per year. On top of that is the resultant effect on pensions, lump sums etc. Unless I manage to jump ship within the next year or two, my potential income will be slashed by a lot more than 10%

Al

Defence budget. Yup. Is it any coincidence that we tend to have a recession during or shortly after we've been involved in armed conflict?

Edit: I've still not seen any argument for the benefits dished out to people just because they've done what every mammal does.

We didn't get any cut in hours, we lost a months salary... Many German companies work on a thirteen month year, so you got less each month, but an extra month's pay at the end of the year. My employer has dropped the 13th month.

It won't affect me though, I've been made redundant anyway...