Brit pensioners quitting Never-Never Land

Thousands of Over-50s and pensioners are in despair over their futures as they note the daily pronouncements of the ruling McBroons and wannabe Cameroons on how to fix the fiscal mess in which the UK wallows.

Likewise the decline in public service standards and a real threat to day to day living as deep budget cuts strangle services are major concerns.

Whatever the outcome of the General Election, living in Britain is going to be tough, specially for those on fixed incomes thinking about retirement. Neither McBroon, who started off by selling our gold reserves for a quarter of today’s price and has gone steadily downhill since, nor Cameroon hold a magic wand to divert us all from their Never-Never land of national debt and family hardships.

So shall we go or shall we stay is going to be the big debate?

While what happens in the UK over the next decade of paying down the McBroon borrowed billions is unknown, there is a place with a lot of “knowns” that is tempting many over 50 and retirement couples to emigrate.

Spain offers a lifestyle that attracts tourists and property owners like no other place on earth:

 Year round warm weather even during the often balmy winter months.
 Excellent sporting facilities including the favourite pastimes of golf and water sports.
 A stable and caring Spanish society that welcomes and respects others, especially the elderly and very young.
 Excellent infrastructure of roads, railways, modern free health facilities for EU citizens.
 Two-hour flights from nearly 20 UK airports to mainland Spain, a bit longer to the Balearics and Canary Islands.
 Superb local food with the Mediterranean diet becoming so popular as a healthy diet with ingredients that are fresh and plentiful.
 Very few problems for non-Spanish speakers as English is now the second language of Spain.

The above benefits are fixed and not subject to market fluctuations nor the vagaries of McBroon that have deleted the “Great” from Great Britain and messed up the lives of millions of its citizens.

Spain’s biggest mistake was allowing over capacity in its important property sector and that means a bigger choice of genuine bargains from hard-pressed developers and Spanish banks with many repossession bargains to offer Brits and other north European buyers.

Many of these villas and apartments are ideal for fulltime living or as 50-50 homes for couples wanting to avoid drab UK winters and the inevitable depressing economic climate in the dark years ahead.

Taliban can afford to move to Spain…

There can be few people left who do not think unbeloved, unelected leader McBroon has lost the plot in the fiscal arena after his crazy idea to hand over millions to the terrible Taliban to rebuild their lives rather than give a helping hand to thousands of British families and pensioners in near penury as a result of his pension raids and stealth taxes of the last decade.

As McBroon postures on the international stage handing out taxpayers’ money right, left and centre to boost his ego and piggy bank when he is finally given the Order of the Boot by British voters, it’s clear he has lost touch with reality.

To claim Britain is out of recession on the basis of some barely measureable GDP for a single quarter when it takes the results of three successive quarters to prove we are in a recession, is clutching at straws.

McBroon has run up debts equal to 72% of the GDP and it will take a decade of even higher taxes and belt tightening to pay this lot back – even longer if the international lenders decide to charge higher interest rates because of the country’s poor performance.

This is a frightening prospect for pensioners and those thinking about retirement based on fixed incomes. The Taliban can afford new poppy farms, trade in their mopeds for 4x4 all-terrain Land Cruisers fitted with rocket launchers and have R&R breaks in sunny Spain. Brits in need get another slap in the face from McBroon.

Future hardships, even if the Cameroons manage to scrape an election victory, are guaranteed for UK citizens in a country wracked and ruined by the idiotic McBroons.

Is it any wonder that so many over-50 Brits are now researching moving to Spain where their pensions will go further, their lives will be warmer, their full-filled years all the longer and the direct aftermath of the McBroon era can be escaped…

There are loads of property bargains in Spain, but be quick before the Taliban catch onto the idea of a Spanish life-style funded by the British taxpayer…

Final days for the McBroons?

It’s looking like the final days of the McBroons as they scramble from saving face in the hot Afghan desert and onto snowy Copenhagen to save the world from climate change. As they have got so little right in their 12 years of mis-rule, few would give them any odds on pulling something useful out of the fire at this late stage of their decline.

McBroon and his cohorts are allowing the busted banks to pay bonuses and fund the Krafty take-over of a British chocs company; Spend money faster than they can print it on some days, while cheating on promised pension increases; providing vital helicopters after five years of military casualties while whitewashing over the vainglorious Iraq invasion… offering Third World ragamuffins billions to squander on staying green while giving nowt to Britain’s greenest van maker - who’s now gone bust.

It’s a fairy tale world the McBroons have created for themselves, but surely without a happy fairy tale ending… Hans Christian Andersen lived in Copenhagen and like McBroon he liked to travel around the world compiling imaginative stories to tell, one of which, “Only a Fiddler”, might become McBroon’s tomb-top testimonial when judged by history?

The parlous and changed state of Great Britain PLC, now Lorded over by the mortgage fiddler with more titles than Idi Amin, Saddam Hussain, Robert Mugabe and Hazel Blears, is getting many people looking for a better country to move to.

A place where their meagre pensions will go further; where the sun shines 300 days of the year and their neighbours will be friendly and more respectful in their safer neighbourhoods. The nearest place is Spain, where they can now find a nice house for less than the average price of a flat in the UK.

Spain’s in the recession too and in trouble because they built too many second homes to cater for the never-ending demand from discontented Brits, bored Benelux bods and over-rich Russians. As Spanish banks were not allowed to stray into the twilight zones of dodgy lending and toxic assets they are still around to advance good mortgages to sensible borrowers.

As McBroon has done nothing to support Sterling, the pound has crashed against the Euro, making life difficult for Brits paying mortgages in Spain. Some have had their Spanish homes repossessed, but most will go without the Sunday roast before giving up their splendid lifestyle on their favourite Costa.

McBroon blunders boost Spanish homes

Countries with the euro are now out of the recession, while the country with the pound remains mired in McBroon fiscal clay and still no sign of recovery.

Blundering McBroon is to blame as he’s agreed to pay more billions in membership fees to the EU and his copy-cat car scrappage scheme gave £400 million to German and French manufacturers. He struts around European events like they should be grateful for his helping hand, but doesn’t get it when they ignore his save the planet schemes. Europeans know how to prioritise, know how to boost their currency, look after their citizens, know how to spell and get each other’s names right.

They are happy to see the McBroons bring Britain to it’s knees and happier still when EU laws allow EU banks to snap up the profitable bits of British banks, leaving the British taxpayer with trillions of bad bank debts.

It was McBroon who allowed the banks to become bloated, offer bloated bonuses and almost wreck what’s left of the Great British Economy. His mistakes will still be being repaid for the next decade or so and it’s the Over-50s who will bear the brunt and consequences.

Moving to Spain is a good option because the banks are safe and secure, the cost of living is lower and the sun shines more often. There are still many bargain properties to be snapped up and years of improved lifestyle to be enjoyed for those thinking about retirement.

So don’t delay, thinking that the Pound will recover its value against the Euro as it won’t; that your UK house value will return to its previous level as seems very unlikely; or that house prices in Spain will continue to drop – they are bottoming out right now.

That McBroon leaves a busted Britain is no reason for sensible citizens to stay and suffer the consequences of life on the breadline. Spain has long been our favourite destination, it’s now looking like it’ll be our favourite home from home from next year…

McBroon get his figures in a twist…

So McBroon, the self proclaimed fiscal saviour of the world’s economy, isn’t very good with figures after all. First he loses £3B by selling our gold bullion just before prices soared, then he puts millions of pensioners in limbo by his annual stealth raids on funds, followed by his spurious claim that he’s seen off boom and bust for ever – just before Britain goes bust…

Now he admits to fouling up with his own expenses, somehow, despite his brother’s help, over-charging the taxpayer by £12,415 for having his place cleaned and double charging a decorating bill? Such “sloppy accounting” from another Labour MP got the bloke kicked out of the Party. No chance McBroon will ban himself or force fellow fiddler, Jacqui Smith to pay back the £116,000 for her double homes dodge.

McBroon never seems to finish up doing the right thing at the right time and this is what’s driving hard-working Over-50s from these shores. He proves every day he can turn gold to lead and that’s just about the only street cred he has with the majority of voters, who now realise it’s going to be a decade or more before the country recovers from his machinations.

In that time the Over-50s and hard-pressed pensioners can either sit it out and struggle in Blighty or choose to relax on their favourite Costa, spending their inadequate pension on sangria, sightseeing and Sky TV footie subs. If not fulltime, then with Ryanair offering flights for a fiver, pensioners can use their UK heating allowance to fund the winter months in Sunny Spain.

Meanwhile, McBroon’s new mate, Mandy stirs the political pot of sludge by encouraging MPs not to repay their ill gottons, even when found guilty and ordered to do so by the auditor they themselves appointed to resolve the MPs’ expenses scandal. That’s the same “Mortgage Mandy” who resigned after a dubious loan application came to light, but he coughed up his excess expenses charges 24 hours later.

Remember, how we howled with laughter at TV’s Yes Minister's more outrageous scripts. They look pretty tame compared with the ongoing revelations of the McBroon Years… sadly coming to an end and looking to be replaced by the Glum Cameroons and their sackcloth policies.

Scary for Brit pensioners

There’s been some scary pensions data this week for Over-50s thinking about retiring to sunny Spain and stern warnings of a Big Bang if something radical isn’t done…

Pensions are an accident waiting to happen, according to experts in the Channel 4 Dispatches programme,"Who Took Your Pension”

While the McBroon Government financial crisis, poor investment returns and inadequate savings have curbed our ability to finance an ever longer retirement, our expectations remain high. "If the pension system carries on as it is with no real change, it will explode," Ros Altman, governor of the London School of Economics, told the Dispatches programme.

Basic UK state provision is low by European standards, yet occupational schemes which should top that up are in crisis because of increased costs, poor investment returns and our extended longevity. Those who most need to make an early commitment for old age, the low paid, are those least likely to do so.

TUC figures show the proportion of "unpensioned" private sector workers has risen from 54.6% to 62.6% between 2000 and 2008, a period that included the pension raids of McBroon, the spend-thrift chancellor that got it all wrong.

"Low-paid employees are simply not earning enough in their working life to pay for a sensible retirement given that people are living so much longer," independent pensions consultant John Ralfe told Dispatches.

With McBroon borrowed billions to repay, taxes and cost of living increases on the way, Over-50s should be looking at ways of leaving these shores for a relaxed lifestyle on a favourite Brit-friendly Costa.

Ex-pat pensioners along the Costa del Sol were relaxed the other day as they watched the latest McBroon machinations on their Sky News widescreens. They seemed to be enjoying life to the full with Spanish mates and ex-pats from other northern European countries in favourite bars and golf clubs.

The wrecked Pound means they have less pension cash, but living in Spain can cost 30% less than the UK and with a sunnier, relaxed lifestyle to boot. Petrol now costs about the same, but fares on efficient trains are much lower, helping retirees to enjoy the seaside resorts and historic cities.

Housing costs are a fraction of those in Blighty, food and drink costs typically 25% less and heating bills are lower because of the Spanish climate. The health service is highly rated and there are few delays in seeing consultants and getting treatment. Private health payments are lower and dentists plentiful.

The McBroons are likely to be replaced by the Cameroons, but the borrowed billions and train-wreck economy can only be fixed by higher taxes, working longer and lowered standards of living. BBC News shows pension options.

Escape to Spain, Escape from McBroons

The summer has seen the ruling, bungling McBroons crash from crisis to disaster as the economy went south and the national debt northwards.

Over 50s, struggling to hold onto their last jobs before retirement or supplement their pensions, have never seen anything like the level of incompetence shown by the McBroons. They say Ministers and departments of state lack credibility, a viewpoint reinforced by statements from McBroon Castle on the economy and the needs for cuts and belt tightening.

First, it’s no cuts in public services as spun all summer long, now, as McBroon himself realises no sane person in the land believes him, he finally admits there will be cuts as the national debt soars above £800 billion.

After the great Westminster expenses scandal, involving a succession of McBroon ministers, comes the scandal of the Chief Attorney getting her knickers in a twist over her illegal immigrant housemaid. Baroness Scotland forced through the law that caught her in its net, but she claims she didn’t keep copies of the documents she checked when offering the job. She didn’t say what those documents were, but was happy to cough up £5,000 for a fine in the hope it would all go away…

Many of the Over-50 loyal readers of this blog run companies that may start recruiting again sometime in the next decade. They now have a ready answer if they inadvertently fall foul of the McBroons laws on employing immigrants.

Tell the man from the Border Agency – the same dozy outfit that allowed illegals to hitch a lift on their private coach – that you are sorry if the originals of the documents you have photocopies of are fakes like the ones that so easily fooled the Bungling Baroness. Then quietly point out that the McBroons own Home Office issued thousands of national insurance numbers without checks…

It is no wonder that Spanish property websites are getting record numbers of inquiries from Over-50s – they clearly reckon that country is nowadays run better than the UK. Plus the weather is better and as the cost of living is much lower, the pension will go much further... and they will escaped the machinations of the McBroons.

Cleaned out stables, property sanity?

As house prices in the UK soared annually for more than a decade, confident house-owners re-invested their “profits” from their homes into a place bigger and better, taking on greater financial commitments and working harder to meet the repayments, like mice on a treadmill.

It’s not worked, cue the current credit crunch and economic crisis that has seen property markets collapse in the UK and some other countries, like Spain…

Mortgage interest rates have dropped from 18% to the present zero percent, so isn’t it time to restore some sanity to the property market where house prices were growing at 10% a year in some parts of the UK and are now in reverse gear.

Measuring the family worth against the value of the family home and going on a spending spree on the strength of the assumed selling price has proved to be disastrous and a big factor of the current economic crisis.

The reckless mortgage banks are going to be reigned in by Governments, even when they start lending again on any scale, and this probably means a minimum deposit of 25% for all buyers, a good benchmark on whether the planned house purchase is really affordable.

If interest rates can be kept really low, this means lower mortgage repayments and increased spending power to help revive the economy and replace the lost jobs.

Sounds simple and should work, remembering the current recession was caused by reckless banks doing dodgy deals they didn’t really understand and the s0-called light-touch regulators letting them get away with it.

If the G20 Ministers decide to start from economic ground zero and begin cleaning out the Augean stables of the guilty banks and regulators that could be the signal for house-owners to follow suit. A house that is a home rather than a wealth generator, as recognised by families in America and most European countries, would result in more disposable income and a better lifestyle for Brits.

And if they do want to buy another property in the UK or a tempting second home in a sunshine state like Spain, the prices would likewise be lower and not driven ever higher as in the last decade. They are plenty of well-built, key ready bargains in Spain at prices on average 25% lower than the peak of two years ago.

Long may that remain the case, long might sanity be maintained as a result?

The BBC have good economic coverage listen to the latest.

Spain moves could aid crashed Brits

Brits are biting the bullet every day as the media reveal more bungling of the ruling McBroons and their cosy cohorts in the banking business.

Having forced Lloyds Bank into a shotgun marriage with busted HBOS, McBroon preened how single-handedly he’d saved British banking and trotted off to meet the more sensible leaders of other countries to “lead the world out of recession”.

He never paused to get the Bank of England, his beloved and disgraced Financial Services Authority (FSA) nor his army of foolish fiscal mandarins to check the balance sheet of beggarly HBOS. Nor did Lloyds do much checking, in their haste to grab the McBroon billions in bribes if they saved his skin.

Ten billion quid is a lot of money and that’s what Lloyds will have to write off having found toxic assets in HBOS. It was comeuppance week for the British bankers when they trotted along to Westminster to say sorry for fouling up the world economy and wrecking the lives of millions.

They said it wasn’t their fault though…implying that that the FSA, operating the light touch” governance of McBroon for a decade or so, had not rapped their knuckles or threatened to downgrade the chateau wine at their next cosy luncheon..

So where to now for cash-strapped Brits, whose property assets and pensions are worth a third less than they thought and the markets that govern the prices are in total disarray and unlikely to show any growth for years to come, according to some pundits.

Think Spain, where the banks were banned from getting involved with American trailer trash mortgages, are still reporting good profits and have plenty of cash waiting for mortgage applicants. They also have the best interest rates for savers with one deal from La Caixa at 6% on 12 month call, being over-subscribed by a long way.

The Spanish banks also have a growing supply of repossession homes at up to 50% below current valuation and they can be purchased from specialist broker http://www.propertyinspain.net/ often with low cost subrogated mortgages built-in.

It’s an obvious way out of the crazy world of the McBroons, who seem to turn everything they touch into a solidifying rock bottom of common sense and diligence.

It seems few of the McBroons have actually run anything remotely commercial in their lives. If UK PLC was a commercial undertaking it would be going bust about this time and the McBroons would be collecting their redundancy payments and handing back the keys to the limo.

Haunted words on Busted Britain

If ever ill chosen words come back to haunt you, consider Gordon Brown’s thresh against political rivals when he promised the Labour Party annual conference at Brighton in September 2000 there would be “No return to Tory boom and bust”

For the record, this is what he boasted: “We can today steer a course of stability at a time of uncertainty in the world economy without putting growth at risk.

“So we will not return to the old short-termism. There will be no sudden lurches in tax or spending policy.

“And there will be no irresponsible pre-election sprees or pay demands that put youth jobs or any jobs at risk. No change in our policy on Europe, support in principle for the single currency, in practise the five tests that have to be met. And no relaxing our fiscal rules.

“We will not put hard won economic stability at risk. No return to short-termism. No return to Tory boom and bust”, he added.

He’s has clearly broken every promise in the last few months and it’s showing in the opinion polls, despite government promises to spend our way out of the recession.

So, what’s happening now with Great Britain Limited, as the McBroon Government borrowing tops the £50 billion of the last Tory Government and they lurch around like “headless chickens” in an attempt to save the economy and their jobs. Gordon Brown has broken every fiscal rule in his own book and oversees a country busted in spirit and busted in kind.

The debts he’s run up could take several generations of punitive taxes to pay off as a forecast 3.1 million people lose their jobs and, for many breadwinners, the homes they have struggled to maintain.

For many Brits this is decision time: Do we stay or do we go? Grab the redundancy money while it’s on the table or take early retirement if that’s on offer or plan to do better in your own business by moving it to Spain?

Benidorm or Puerto Banus, for many businesses, could be in the Home Counties so far as the internet is concerned and reaching London doesn’t take much longer.

The Med lifestyle is a great improvement on over-crowded, over-governed Britain. If braving it out in Britain is not an option, think about Spain, where it costs 30% less for a better lifestyle, what’s left of your pension can be collected from a local bank or post office, and The Sun and Sky Sports are freely available within a totally relaxed way of living – and you might even live longer.

Cost of property purchase and running it are halved in Spain and there’s always a swimming pool or beach just a stroll away as well as a whole new country and culture to explore...