vivweb01blog

  Editor's note: Please see the recent update at the end of this text for analysis of the Winter Fuel reversal announcement in June 2025, and its implications for the future of universal pensioner benefits.....You may also be interested in a more recent update on the recent rumours that Reeves may introduce means testing for the State Pension itself, and other real or imaginary prospective horrors, in this November's budget....  ----------------------------- Now that the dust has well and truly settled after Reeves’ so-called ‘Halloween Nightmare’ budget in October 2024, and its consequences have fully fitered through to the economy at large, let’s take a look at what actually happened to pensioner benefits…and what we might expect to happen in future. We all know about the loss of the Winter Fuel Payment for the majority of pensioners last summer – you would have had to have been living on Mars for the last year not to. Although Starmer obviously thinks it's 'done...

In short – it stifles incentive and enterprise, thus reducing our nation's productivity and its capacity to generate wealth..... Let me try to explain.... The Covid pandemic, Brexit, and more recently the worldwide ‘cost of living crisis’ have undoubtedly put a huge strain on many western economies since the start of the decade, and the UK is no exception.  The many billions gobbled up by pandemic costs and the UK's furlough scheme in particular were but one example of the financial challenges we faced, and the debt incurred will still have to be paid for somehow.  Raising taxes was a logical response during the first years of the pandemic in an attempt to pay down some of our mounting debt. Maintenance of ultra-low interest rates and effectively ‘printing money’ via quantitative easing was another means adopted to try and soften the immediate economic blow in the late 2010s, but unfortunately had the effect of making the economy appear more robust than it actually was.......

There has been much talk in the press and on social media recently about the Government’s intention to roll out electronic digital personal identification  (eID) in the UK. As yet, the fine detail of the eIDs themselves, and the process of their implementation, hasn’t been presented. Reading between the lines, I suspect the leadership are wary of imposing yat another far-reaching measure in their usual 'bull in a china shop' fashion, and are testing the water before revealing any concrete plans or timescales.  Here are some thoughts regarding the practicability and implications of such a scheme, assuming that the end result is some sort of smartphone-based personal ID product. First, let’s consider its desirability for the average UK citizen. We are told that a personal ID card will assist us in allowing quicker access to all manner of benefits and other state provisions, as well as removing the cumbersome requirements for paper documents that are needed to prove ID an...

Important Update 23.10.25: We now have firm dates for the closure of NCR6 (Alias FP K68). A notice appeared in early October at the prospective NCR6 crossing point for the new Garendon distributor road to the effect that '....Butthole Lane will be closed from 13.10.25 for 10 weeks...' . I have now obtained more detailed info about the closure from LCC Highways via our local county councillor. You'll find these on my website - follow the link below or more details and a status report for the recommended diversionary route.  NCR6 is an established PROW, and is the only remaining traffic-free route between Shepshed and Loughborough for cyclists and pedestrians. Closing it for this length of time will inconvenience both pedestrians and cyclists; there is no viable alternative cycle-friendly route, since the Coach Road is also closed and isn't scheduled to reopen again until April 2026. The closure will also restrict access to the established FPs in the southern part of t...