Chris Huhne

To paraphrase Martin Niemöller

"First they came for the students and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a student.

Then they came for those on welfare and I did not speak out--
Because I was not on welfare.

Then they came for the old and infirm, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not old and infirm.

Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me."

Some very good letters in today's Guardian:
www.theguardian.com/society/2013/dec/26/chris-huhne-attacks-old-protect-rich

It's such a pointless argument. You can't generalise about the situation of older people, any more than you can generalise about the situation of young people. Some older people are comfortably off, some are just scraping by. Some young people are doing all right, others are having a tough time.

When I was young, apart from my well-off cousins, I didn't know anyone that went to university - and I never heard of any young people taking a "gap year". I didn't go abroad until I was 37 years old, and I remember the mortgage interest rate being something like 14%. It's all swings and roundabouts.

The only people that have been shielded throughout the decades from any of the ups and downs of the economy are the mega wealthy, and it seems pretty silly (or perhaps clever) to me to be pitting one generation against another and ignoring that fact.

obviously not pitching to get the over 60s vote for the lib dem s is he.

Silly me thinking the disgraced Huhne might at least have been gracious enough to lie low after leaving prison but no he still tries to stay in the limelight and lecture us all. Always good of a millionaire like Huhne to point out where us honest folk have gone wrong.
I have gone from thinking most MP's are out of touch to thinking most MP's couldn't care less and will spout any view required on this and that which most boosts their income, feathers their nest. We deserve so much more. I don't even know if I'll be able to find anyone worthy of my vote in future. It will be a case of who is the least awful?

ps - encouraging teenage pregnancies????

Theirs must have been a marriage of like attracting like.

As for his wife having 'the brains' I don't think so. She put herself in prison by trying to spite him, own goal me thinks.

Then she found a new boyfriend in labour MP Dennis Macshane who was sent to prison last week for fiddling his expenses. She sure can pick em. She is however quite sensible to listen to when she is speaking about economics so perhaps she will stick to that in the future.

As for Huhne he has always been obnoxious. He is a millionaire so I think the limelight is more the object of his desire and this type of thing gives him just that.

DH got flashed for speeding yesterday afternoon. He hardly ever drives fast but he needed the loo. The roads were empty at the time.

Is he still a Lib Dem MP on has he been kicked out?

We are not penalising the young in favour of the old. The old are guiding the young, setting a good example - with the exeption of Chris Huhne of course, imparting knowledge and values, instilling an ethos of thrift, generosity and caring and most of all encouraging a good education as a foundation for life in the future.
It is the likes of him and the policies he promotes who encourage teenage pregnancy, any kind of learning of dubious quality and relevance as long as it is accompanied by a lot of certificates, cheating and fiddling the system for personal greed, a dependant society and a financial services based economy which by definition will result in high unemployment and re- distribution of wealth to a minority at the expense of the majority. Exactly where we are today.
I'm sure most pensioners will be only too pleased to be repaid what they have paid into the system over 39 or 44 years in exchange for not receiving a pension. It was not our generation that reduced the qualifying years to 30 from the 39 & 44 previously required. As a disgraced former minister he perhaps should heed the advice that it is infinately better to be considered a fool than to either speak or write thereby removing all doubt. It is said that he once stated that Amphetamines, Opium and LSD are acceptible in society, really, such a great example. I for one will not pay any heed to whatever he would have to say notwithstanding his degree in politics and economics, it obviously proves one can achieve the standard without actually having learnt anything.

Wouldn't have wanted any of those in my Christmas stocking...

Apparently, before he became a politician he wrote four books!

not a very good article either is it.

Suggesting he is happy to retire and spend what he has accumulated ana? - but then it might dawn on him that he was retired and "old". aaargh!
An occupation then, that will make him feel important and non-old.

A sanctimonious buffoon, a convicted liar and general all round prig. I assume he cannot come to terms that it was his wife who had the brains (a Cypriot lady I believe) and he just took the credit. Now she is no longer around he has nothing to offer other than unadulterated drivel. Perhaps he would do all of us a favour if he just slipped away and crept under a stone never to grace us with his irksome smirk again. A perfect example of what is bad and wrong with our political system.

I don't think he needs to 'make a living'!

I'll second that. Out of a job isn't he. So he's trying to make a living by writing articles.

Excellent idea Riverwalk.

Maybe CariGransnet could invite him for a chat with us!

It wasn't our fault. I only remember two holidays abroad, and neither of those was luxurious - one was two weeks camping in a Boy Scout type tent, the other a week's coach tour. I don't have a wardrobe full of designer clothes, or a cellar full of expensive booze. We did not go out on the town except for an occasional celebration. My children did not go to prestigious private schools. I did not take out a sequence of mortgages for ever more enormous and showy houses. I lived within my means and never got into debt.

Older people all over the country, in all kinds of professions and jobs, and individually helping out their children and grandchildren and doing voluntary work to help provide srvices for those in worse circumstances to them. Without them, social services would be overwhelmed and grind to a halt and have to be resuscitated with injections of cash - public money, which would come from the same hard-pressed taxpayers as the pensions we contributed into for decades.

Chris Huhne aged 59 - it's heading your way mate.

Eloquently put Elegran.
And as well as paying for the State Pension through our NI contributions, even pensioners on modest incomes are paying income tax and continuing to contribute to the Exchequer.

What is the answer , I ask ?

Recent research suggests that today's young people will be the first for many generations not to end up better off than their parents.

They will be worse off in terms of earnings, pensions, retirement age and house ownership. Added to this with many more people living longer there will be a greater burden on them for the care of the elderly.