I had a lovely few nights in Barcelona, thank you. And, yes, I could have arranged flights/hotel/parking/transfers/insurance myself by spending a few hours on the World Wide Web, as no-one now calls it. But I didn’t. I used Caroline, my excellent Travel Counsellor who put the whole lot together and made sure it all worked. You can DIY most of what financial advisers like us can do for you, just as you can rewire your own house or lay your own patio. Many do. But many, like me, don’t want or need the hassle or responsibility and realise it’s sometimes worth paying a little more for good, old-fashioned peace of mind. Thank goodness.
Happy Days are here again?
The ’70s were for my coming-of-age time, as they were for Stuart Maconie, author of ‘The Nanny State Made Me’. It’s when I took my 0 and A Levels, went to uni and started my first job. My view of the decade will always be rose-tinted, I’ll remember the music, discos, student grants (wouldn’t have known what a tuition fee was) and monthly inflationary pay rises negotiated by unions of which I was not a member. The strikes, high taxes and IRA bombs were background noise to me and, yes, I was the first in my family to go to university and, yes, despite everything, felt more secure with a nanny state in charge than at any time since. I’d happily pay more tax to give my kids and grandkids the same.
