Pay cuts for the poor.

The lowest paid staff at the University of Sussex are being threatened with a cut in take home pay. It's a result of changes to their pension scheme, which will mean an increase in their pension contributions, and a reduction in the University's contribution.

Naturally, people are upset about this, so Amicus members were out on strike today. Unison are balloting soon.

So, while the city fat cats are still getting their bonuses, the poor are being asked to pay the price.

[Edited to add]:

What the University should do is allow all its staff the join the same USS pension scheme. Then the interests of all staff, including senior management, would be aligned.

Independence for Alaska

Is it true that Sarah Pailin used to be a member of the Alaskan Independence Party? The claim is made at 2 minutes 4 seconds into the video, but corrected on their web site. Her husband has been, though.

Why so bloody miserable?

"Why's everyone so bloody miserable about the economy?"

"Because they're worried about losing their jobs, Mr Harris"

Love her or loathe her?

Cameron's speech:

"Thank God we swapped [Calaghan] for Margaret Thatcher".

"For Labour there is only the state and the individual, nothing in between....no such thing as society... You cannot run our country like that."

Er, but wait a minute...

Boiler Juice

A while ago, I was talking to a colleague about rising heating oil prices. Some people apparently club together with neighbours to arrange group orders. This keeps prices down, and also saves some CO2 because the tankers have less driving around to do, and helps keep rural traffic down a little bit.

I suggested that a web site to assist with these group deliveries would be useful. Of course, I've now discovered that it already exists! BoilerJuice.com has price history charts, arranges buying weekends (they group online orders by postcode), has security tips and products (heating oil theft is rife).

One feature that it's missing, though, is energy efficiency tips. Well, it has user comments on the blog.

Clegg trounces Brown and Cameron

In a Newsnight focus group of 27 floating voters, 3 said they'd vote for Gordon Brown, 4 for David Cameron, and 17 for Nick Clegg - after being shown clips of them talking about the economy. Unfortunately, only one of them had anything to say about him before being shown the clips.

The most effective clip was Clegg talking about how the rich pay less tax than the poor - proportionately to their income of course. For example, the Chief Executive of Northern Rock got a £30k golden handshake, and it wasn't taxed at all!

Changing At Southampton

Well, this seems ok. I'll not be boring my reader with too many posts here. But, I'm also trying out twitted. So check for regular conference updates at http://twitter.com/ianeiloart/

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