Alan Paulley

golfer and gardener

[Stuey Beef 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @stuey_beef]

Behind that £56bn annual payout sits a mountain of promises – public sector pension liabilities that have ballooned over the past decade and now stretch into the trillions.

This is not money in a fund somewhere, prudently invested.

It is a political IOU: decades of governments promising defined‑benefit pensions they never realistically financed, and dumping the bill onto workers who haven’t even been born yet.

If a private company ran a scheme like this, directors would go to prison. It would be called what it is: fraud against future employees and shareholders.

In Whitehall, it’s wrapped in jargon and waved through as “long‑term obligations”, never properly counted alongside the national debt, never honestly presented to voters as part of the tax burden they are expected to carry for the rest of their lives.

The numbers have doubled since 2012.

While wages stagnated, while the tax take rose, while essential services creaked, the state quietly escalated the scale of its pension promises – and made almost no attempt to match that with real assets.

A serious government would level with the public: this is an unfunded scheme on a scale that makes every Budget speech about “fiscal responsibility” sound like a bad joke.

Labour’s choice is to look away, accuse anyone who raises the issue of “attacking nurses and teachers”, and hope the coming storm lands on someone else’s watch.

[Stuey Beef 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @stuey_beef]

Retired public sector workers were handed a record £56bn in “gold‑plated” pensions in 2025‑26 – roughly £2,000 torn out of the pocket of every household in the country.

Not for schools, not for hospitals, not for policing or defence – for a guaranteed income stream to people who no longer work, under schemes that were never properly funded and never honestly explained to the public.

The political class calls this “rewarding service”. What it actually rewards is being on the inside when the deal was written: final‑salary, inflation‑proofed pensions backed by the Treasury, completely insulated from the economic reality facing everyone else.

Millions of younger private‑sector workers with fragile defined‑contribution pots, insecure work and no hope of retiring at 60 are being ordered to bankroll comfortable retirements for a state‑sector aristocracy who were promised more than the country ever put aside in cash.

This isn’t some accident of history.

Governments of all colours signed cheques they knew future taxpayers would have to cash, then buried the true scale of the obligation. Labour now sits on that broken model, refuses to reform it, and pretends the only answer is “tax the rich” – while quietly taxing the young, the renting and the working poor to maintain deals they never voted for and will never receive themselves.

[Stuey Beef 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @stuey_beef]

More than 70,000 retired public sector workers are on pensions above £50,000 a year, and almost 4,000 enjoy more than £100,000 annually – guaranteed, inflation‑linked, backed by the full power of the state.

These aren’t one‑off anomalies; they are a structural feature of a system designed to shower the top of the public sector with lifetime security, regardless of economic reality for everyone else.

Try telling a delivery driver, a care worker, or a small‑business owner who’s never had a pension that they must subsidise five‑figure and six‑figure state‑sector pensions forever because “the rules say so”.

Try telling a generation locked out of home ownership that they must accept higher taxes and worse services so a political and bureaucratic class can retire early on packages the private sector stopped offering years ago.

Yes, many ordinary public‑sector workers retire on modest pensions.

That truth is routinely weaponised by defenders of the system to obscure the existence of this pension aristocracy at the top – the people whose lavish deals drive the biggest costs, whose interests Labour is most keen to protect, and whose comfort is quietly prioritised over the needs of struggling families staring at rising tax bills and decaying public services.

[SunderlandLollipops 💙 @SunderlandLolly]

Not one person deciding the pension age will EVER have to live on the state pension of £12.5k (only HALF the min wage). And NONE OF THEM will be working to 68.

[Zia Yusuf @ZiaYusufUK]

I have written to the Crown Prosecution Service demanding an explanation of why the Afghan migrant who entered the UK in a lorry and murdered Wayne Broadhurst was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter rather than murder.

It is outrageous this proven liar’s psychological defence was not properly put to a jury.

Starmer is set to leave office without having once mentioned Wayne Broadhurst by name.

The political class which let his killer into the country is now conspiring to keep silent over the consequences of their actions.

[Tom McPhail @PensionsMonkey]

OBR fiscal risks: "If the primary deficit in 2030-31 instead remained at its 2025-26 level of 1.4 per cent of GDP, then the growing primary deficit...would lead to debt rising onto an unsustainable upward path almost immediately in the early 2030s (yellow line in Chart 5)."

[Lee @mcfcman66]

Sainsbury’s have just been with my delivery….

Driver said ‘you’ve got some substitutions’

I said ‘I hope they are fecking better than Tommy Tuchel’s

Oh how we laughed…..

[A View From Yorkshire @models_by_Russ]

Dear @FIFAcom,

Could you please clarify how the display of the “Las Malvinas Son Argentinas” banner after the World Cup semi-final complies with your own regulations?

The FIFA World Cup Regulations, Article 12 (Equipment) state:

“The display of political, religious, or personal messages or slogans in any language or form by players and officials on their playing or team kits, equipment… or body is prohibited.”

In addition, Law 4.5 of the IFAB Laws of the Game (The Players’ Equipment) states:

“Equipment must not have any political, religious or personal slogans, statements or images.” It further explains that political statements relating to governments, political acts or national issues are not permitted.

The sovereignty of the Falkland Islands/Malvinas is an ongoing political dispute between the United Kingdom and Argentina. On that basis, many would reasonably view the banner as a political statement.

If these regulations are to retain credibility, surely they must be enforced consistently, regardless of the nation involved.

I would appreciate FIFA’s clarification.

[Tim Moose 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @tim_moose]

Man Utd player Martinez was seen holding a banner reading "The Falkland Islands are Argentinian". @ManUtd @ManUtdMEN Must be sold asap this summer. Do not want to see him in a Utd shirt again. He disrespected the Country he works in.

[Jose Vizner @Josevizner]

Estos no vuelven a jugar en la Premier.

¡LA REACCIÓN EN INGLATERRA ES ENORME! Como no podía ser de otra manera

La pancarta desplegada por los futbolistas tras el partido Argentina-Inglaterra ha causado indignación.

Los ingleses exigen la cancelación de los permisos de trabajo de los futbolistas que portaban la pancarta.

Aquí están los nombres:

Cuti Romero (Tottenham),
Lisandro Martinez (United)
Enzo Fernández (Chelsea)
Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool)
El Colo Barco (Chelsea)

Van a salir baratos…

[𝐒σ𝐍ᶰყ  @SonniTx]

✊🏻La Fifa me acaba de bloquear mi cuenta y me pidió eliminar el video de la falta sin tarjeta de Enzo Fernández 🇦🇷🚩sobre un jugador inglés 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿.

Mo quieren qué señalamos las Porquerías de su nefasto Mundial. ⚽️🚫🚩❌️

[Robert Carter @Bob_cart124]

This is so f-ed up man. An Argentina player hit an Egyptian player in the face - no card. Now another blow to the back of the head against England... STILL NO CARD!

This is NEXT LEVEL CHEATING!

[fan @NoodleHairCR7]

UFC President Dana White on Enzo Fernandes back of the head elbow:

"He's lucky he plays football coz if he did that in UFC he would be banned for life."

[Nabaarun Barooah @BarooahNabaarun]

I’ve played MMA for quite a while now. And a back of the head hit (called a rabbit punch) is illegal even in combat sports. Not in football apparently.

[Steve Loftus @LoftusSteve]

Their wealth tax is very small, with lots of carve outs, and they don't have CGT. There's also no IHT for direct descendents.

Happy to copy them. Shall we David?

[(fan) REAL MADRID FANS 🤍 @AdriRM33]

La imagen de la VERGÜENZA.

Sin tarjeta y gol 🤢

[Sedd @SeddSezz]

The ghastly trans university worker has been charged over outrageous comments on Ann Widdecombe’s death!

Deservedly so! Glorious!

How can the University of Aberdeen feasibly keep this Heather Herbert cretin in a job?

Who on earth wishes another human an extremely painful death except a monster?

[Bugs @iwatchbugs]

I think this is the main reason why everyone is so frustrated with the rules of the game. This is a FOUL. Spence beat Messi to the ball and Messi stomps on his foot. FOUL. The play goes on and they end up scoring the winner. No VAR intervention, no mention of it. Goal stands.

[LaVozGalactica @Lavozgalactica]

🚨 ÚLTIMA HORA: Acaban de filtrar un vídeo de 5 minutos sobre todos los robos de Argentina a Inglaterra.

Esto es un escándalo Mundial.

[Adam Brooks AKA EssexPR 🇬🇧 @EssexPR]

I don’t believe HE should be arrested for this, despite how vulgar it is.
I do believe HE should have been sacked by the University though.

My personal opinion.