oh comedy - thy name is tory party

yesterday (by the time you read this)  the tidying up of  the christmas decorations (a bit late but done nonetheless - better late than never). 

oh comedy - thy name is tory party.

they've only gone and picked peter bone's lover as the replacement for (the disgraced and dishonourable)  ex-MP peter bone. colours firmly nailed to the mast there of no fucks given - no one likes us we don't care.  

richard holden, conservative party chair, has already tweeted his congratulations. 

bone had apparently threatened to run as an independent unless his lover was selected. 

meanwhile it looks like paul maynard MP  the pensions minister will be suspended from parliament and possibly subject to a recall petition and a by-election. details here.

it gets better, that skidmore by-election seat? it's being abolished at the next election. one has to admire the quality of his revenge. 

horsemouth must get back into the habit of using his diary/ diaries. 

and he must get back into the habit of reading also. he's finding it difficult to get started. 

he's just started on a kazuo ishiguro story malvern hills in nocturnes. 

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so horsemouth's retirement plan looks something like this - live out of his savings until the state pension hits. obviously he can't do this all the way but he can do frugal. any money he can avoid spending now will still get interest (or the benefits of being invested in ISAs and suchlike) until he actually spends it. he's in the early stages of discovering what is actually possible. 

one problem is that the stock market rallies and collapses affect his savings figures, in recent months making them look better than they are (at some points making them look worse). 

the assumption is that the state pension will still be there when he gets there and worth something similar to what it is worth now. 

one interesting thing with the horizon IT scandal (and the persecution of the post-masters/ mistresses by the post office) seems to have been missed. 

'in 1996, international computers limited (ICL) began working on a computer accounting system, horizon, for the publicly owned post office corporation and the department of social security, to enable integrated payment of social security benefits through post office branches. the department of social security rejected the system, but the government continued with its procurement for the post office...

horizon is the outcome of the pathway project, whose procurement process commenced in august 1994, and announced by social security minister peter lilley at the 1995 conservative party conference.'