NOEL Coward once said: "How would I like to be remembered? By my charm, you silly bugger." When Gordon Brown looks back over his first year in office, and considers his legacy (yes, there are those encouraging him to do so), worrying about charm will be the least of it.
A disastrous week for the Prime Minister was rounded off with a renewed attack over the 10p tax row from the Treasury Select Committee.
The worst-hit group, as we said all along, were retired women under 65. The committee cited one whose pensions
totalled £8,500, and whose tax bill shot up from £400 to £600. She honestly didn't know where she would find the extra £200.
The committee is demanding more be done to help victims. More damningly, it calls for the publication of a household impact assessment alongside future Budgets to prevent similar muck-ups.
This is particularly damaging, implying the impact of Budgets on ordinary families is currently given scant consideration. Rather, it witheringly concludes, too much emphasis is put on the "perceived benefit of pulling rabbits from the hat".
Coming after the disastrous by-election at Henley, when Labour was pushed into fifth place and trounced by the BNP, and the arrival of falling house prices and rising repossessions in Scotland, the news could hardly get worse.
But it has. We were told the housing market might not recover until 2015 by a Government adviser. The Bank of England warned that living standards will fall over the next year, and the Office for National Statistics confirmed they have already slumped at their fastest rate since 1999. Our rainy-day savings have plummeted to their lowest level for 50 years as we raid them to stay afloat.
There is more to come. Within a fortnight the Parliamentary Ombudsman will publish a report into the collapse of Equitable Life which will be caustic in its condemnation of the Government and regulators.
This problem should have been dealt with six years ago. The only conclusion to draw from the Government's persistent stalling is it hoped, if it ducked and dived long enough, the victims would disappear. Or to put it more crudely, the elderly whingers would die.
Wrong again. Many have shuffled off this mortal coil. But each death only sharpened the determination of the survivors to see justice done.
Safety net too smallNEVER ones to miss an opportunity for an easy headline, the Scottish Government last week rushed out a new mortgage rescue scheme. However, if you are struggling with your monthly bills, I wouldn't hold your breath.
The scheme will not clear your debts or support you as a homeowner. It is a mortgage-to-rent scheme turning owners into tenants.
The extra £25m being pledged can only assist a small number of individuals. Typically, only a few hundred every year resort to the existing safety net.
Interest-free loans would be more appreciated by borrowers going through a tricky patch.
Paying to feed MPsTHEY'RE priceless, our MPs, aren't they? Well, they think so anyway. The long-awaited report designed to clean up expense abuses was little short of a farce.
The John Lewis list has gone, but given most say they never knew it existed anyway, that's hardly a sacrifice. They can still pocket £23,800 annually to fund second homes and £30 daily without receipts.
What really annoys me is that they can still charge for food. Given they spend most of their time at lunches and dinners anyway, I can see no reason whatsoever for me to put meals on their tables. I'm having enough difficulties feeding my own family.
But I would like to see an end to this tit-for-tat snitching between the parties. Rather than prolonged smear campaigns, I suggest past expenses are audited, money erroneously claimed repaid, and a line drawn under it.
Surely of greatest concern has to be the incompetence and opportunism in managing even their own affairs displayed by those who are managing £600bn of our hard-earned money.
It doesn't bear thinking about.
Prudential worriesTHERE are two ways of reading the Prudential's decision not to distribute its £9bn inherited estate, both worrying.
Either it genuinely believes what it says about needing the money because of dark days ahead for stock markets. Or, in the light of recent developments, it doesn't think it will be worth its while.
That is also worrying for policyholders potentially shortchanged by previous distributions.
The full article contains 761 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
