In an election year, all parties will try to be all things to all men. Mostly, it’s only stuff which matters ‘on the doorstep’ which matters. In isolation, Mrs Miggins (not my invention) will be delighted that her pension has gone up with the highest measure of inflation; and no one running a business will be complaining that National Insurance has been reduced. And the two are no longer directly connected, as, although you need to ‘pay your stamp’ for the right number of years to get your state pension, it’s not actually paid for from a separate, stamp-related pot. But you can bet that if someone in some future government decides that the inflation-linking can be cut, it will be National Insurance which will be blamed. And cut it will be, I’m afraid, in the not-too distant, post-election, future.
“Advisers should not fear being replaced by AI”
Until I read this, I hadn’t worried that I or any of my ilk might be replaced by robots, or AI at least, which to many a mind is the same thing. I remember Hal the computer in 2001, and of course the Daleks, although I think they’d be more likely to exterminate than advise.
