Apologies to subscribers who got an early draft
On Friday I was in Fife and yesterday I was in the West Highlands. A train picked me up from Rannoch station and in dreich conditions we were dragged through Fort William to Mallaig in a Scot Rail train. Such was the weather that I cannot report on what I saw as I kept my head in an e-book.
Mallaig in later March is still shut down apart from the West Highland Hotel which used to be rail hotel and today is rather swanky relative to the rest of this fishing village. Quite unlike Fife harbours, it is full of functioning boats and has places to take you when the weather’s right, It wasn’t. Rain and wind got the best of me and I retired to the lounge of the West Highland, welcomed by this
The train I was on was a skanky affair but sitting in the next door platform had been this fine fellow, fresh from the 1970s it appeared
Another person’s train in Mallaig’s station
I returned thinking I was on it and in all honesty, the Scotrail ticket collector and I had a fine conversation on the merits of her job- clearly dominated by Glenfinnan viaduct and the Harry Potter myth. As we passed homewards, I could see what we were crossing
but I was by then into a deep WhatsApp conversation with Richard Smith who is to speak again next week on pensions and dashboards. I shared photos of what was outside and he shared his thoughts.
Random from the head of someone who has the same approach to life as me.
We talked about our jobs and what we want to see improving in administration
RS white, HT green
Richard reminded me of his seminar with Quietroom on 2nd April. I signed up, so you can as it is virtual. Quietroom have already their record attendance of 150 attendants but they are not closed.
I hoped that the weather would clear
And as the train slowed down and the sun beat off the dreich , it all became clear
Scotland in the West is empty, the line from Mallaig showed us solitude
and the delicacy of nature arrived with the sun
We talked at length about whether the dashboard will change pensions. It turns out that Richard instrumented the quoting of out DC pots as potential pension they can bring.
Perhaps we will see the analysis of VFM will stretch to considering the capacity of the pot to provide income and the sustainability and quantity of the income available.
Our conversation was stirred up by a rogue photo thrown up by the carriage’s dirty window.
I thought this either our understanding of dashboard’s impact or the inside of my brain.
Richard was more optimistic. Though currently out of contract , Richard is doing so much work to make us understand our retirement that I would like to think he will be a part of the plans of a good firm. We talked about former boss Sam Seaton of Money Hub and good people fresh from college at Collegia .
Richard concluded that technology made good things happen, Yeovil scored in the 98th minute to win 1-0. It was like being on a Pullman , but our conversation had got dark at times, considering what had happened to us both and to our partners.
Our children below – in Perthshire.
Thr Blue Pullman is up there on a weekend trip from St Albans, operated by LSL (or Locomotive Services Limited), and outfit based in Crewe and owned by Jeremy Hosking (part owner of Crystal Palace and also a significant contributor to both Vote Leave and subsequently to Reclaim UK).
Not only is Edinburgh further west than Cardiff, it is also further west than Birmingham. Strange but true.
That is really interesting Nickthebushes, very interesting Pension Oldie.
I am learning that the South East over-privilidged are trending to “Henry” – maybe I should stay up here.
As the hour changed this morning – I was just cogitating on the fact (despite the misleading map projection above) that the majority of the landmass of the United Kingdom is 20 minutes after Greenwich in terms of sunrise and sunset at the equinox. Also at least 80% is north of Greenwich making the days shorter in winter and longer in summer. Even this close to the equinox the sunset in Mallaig is half and hour after the sunset in London and the dusk is longer.
Has your body clock adjusted accordingly?
Is this a metaphor for the UK Pension System where the interests of an influential South-east biased clique believe their interests should take precedence over others? Is there any less utility in a 3 bed 2 bath semi-detached house in Mallaig for sale at £165,000 than a similar house in Greenwich for sale at £750,000?
Are measures of wealth misleading us all?
Continuing your analogy, PO, this is one of the two times a year that certain people (eg Peter Hitchens and others) ask for the UK to abandon “summer time”.
Those with such “one-size—fits-all” views seem to have no concept of how much darker mornings are in Scotland in early winter time, which is why the Scots need clocks to go back in October.
Nick, however, will know that some train drivers seem to have difficulty adjusting to the clock change(s).
As for “one-size-fits-all” in pensions, we’ve had enough of that too. Here’s to “scheme-specific”, which it was supposed to be all along. People in Brighton say those two words quite often, but to date they don’t really seem to mean it.