Edwina Currie live webchat 23 July, 7pm

LyndaW

Edwina, do you actually live in a McCarthy and Stone house?

testing

No, I don't. I live in Derbyshire, the High Peak, none round here. Wish there were !

Sunhat

To be fair, wasn't Edwina ultimately right about the eggs?

During 1988 we became aware of serious food poisoning being traced to undercooked or raw eggs – a new bug mutation. Putting people in hospital in droves, on kidney machines, and lethal for some. About 500 new cases every week by autumn 1988 (over 30,000 in a year), and some 60 + deaths that year. These days, there’d be one hell of a row, with the product pulled from the shelves by retailers, producers told to clean up, victims properly looked after. But then, the Agriculture Ministry were claiming there was no problem, and I as Public Health Ministry knew there was. So eventually I told you all, on TV news. I didn’t say, Don’t eat eggs; they were safe if properly cooked (eg in cakes). But not soft-boiled, or uncooked (eg ice cream).

Years later the UK egg producers made amends; they invested millions in clean vaccinated stock and check everything. Lion stamp means they’re OK (and no, they don’t pay me to say that).

Scream

Hi Edwina. What do you think about universal benefits - do you think they should be scrapped?

Scream

Hi Edwina. What do you think about universal benefits - do you think they should be scrapped?

Scream

Hi Edwina. What do you think about universal benefits - do you think they should be scrapped?

EdwinaCurrie

LyndaW

Edwina, do you actually live in a McCarthy and Stone house?

testing

No, I don't - none here in Derbyshire!

Tegan

I'd like to know what the pension payout is for a former cabinet minister, and don't they have a sort of golden handshake as well? But I could be wrong.

I wasn’t a Cabinet Minister: Mrs T didn’t have any other women MPs in her Cabinet (that’s another story..). And she didn’t believe in paying Minister well, or heft redundancy payments either – enough for a facelift, as preparation for my new life beyond Westminster, and that’s not something I would do again.. My parliamentary and ministerial pension, after tax, is £660 pm.

granoffour

when do you think people should start planning for retirement? I read something the other day about a 30 year old needing to be saving 864 pounds a month in order to have anything like a decent pension. though maybe their idea of decent and ours would differ I don't know.

As soon as possible, but most people don't. There's one suggestion that a person should save the equivalent of half their age from their salary annually into a pension fund - so a 30 year old should be saving 15% a year. But at 30, that seems like a lot. I started my own pension fund when I was 45 and have saved most of my book money into it. It still won't make me a wealthy pensioner. So, the sooner the better.

tabletop

It's all very well saying focus on the fun and don't worry about money but that might be fine for someone who has had a successful career in the public eye but for those of us who haven't worrying about money has taken away some of the fun before we even thought about retirement. What about us?

I'm a member of our local WI and I'd guess most of the (older than me) members don't have much money. But they can teach me a thing or two about living life to the full.

Sunhat

To be fair, wasn't Edwina ultimately right about the eggs?

Thanks, see the detailed comment on eggs I've just posted.