Let's move into politics...

And now for a little political grumping.

I have a conundrum for you.

The UK has a problem with unemployment. There are too many people out of work and not enough jobs for them all to start work (even if they wanted or were able to do so).

The UK also appears to have lots of problems with education. I won't list everything I think is wrong, but let's start with the standard of education in the generation unable to find work. Many can't spell properly. Many can't do basic maths. There seems to be a problem with turning up for work on time, properly dressed and with a helpful attitude. Pretty basic stuff, you might think, but in the 1980s and 1990s many didn't seem to have those things instilled into them at school, and it's really difficult to teach them now they're adults. Obviously this doesn't apply to everyone in that age range - some are hugely skilled and talented - but there are certainly a number to whom it does apply.

One way to teach the necessary skills might be a kind of adult apprenticeship (or better still, a normal apprenticeship when they left school, but it's a bit late for that). If someone wanting to work but lacking the skills could shadow an older worker and learn from them, they may well become valuable, skilled workers themselves.

But there's a problem. Older workers are still working. They are not retiring. And why is this, you might ask? It's because many (especially women who took some years out to raise families), can't afford to retire without a State pension - which they were led to expect was due to them and for which they worked all their working lives. And what has the Chancellor done? He's stopped them from taking their pensions at the time they expected to be able to do so.

I'm sure none of us would object to doing their bit (yes, of course I'm one of them!). We wouldn't mind if he stuck to his word and just put the pension date back a year or two, as he first proposed. But no - out of the blue, just as we approached the magic age of 60, the pension was pulled away by a couple of years. Then another few years. 

I'm not now expecting to be able to retire until 70. If at all - I expect he wants us to 'die in the traces' as Victorian old workers used to have to do. The Health Service is being dismantled around us, so if we get stressed out or bits of us stop working, there will be very little help - we seem to be just be expected to lay down and die on the job.

Well OK. Working keeps your mind ticking over, and keeps you feeling part of things. You slow down, and productivity might suffer a bit, but do we give a damn? We do not. At least, we don't care if the government's income suffers. What does bother me is that I'm sitting there in a job I wouldn't object to retiring from, when other younger people could do with that job, and I can't make room for them. That's the reason there aren't enough jobs to go around - because they're full of people who are strictly speaking of retirement age.

Perhaps one of the millionaires who are running this country might like to explain how in their world this makes any sense at all.

Because I can't.