BBC survivors - who’s gone missing?

I’ve watched the first two episodes of the BBC’s Survivors series and what a revelation it’s been.

I’m not talking about the strange continuity episodes - cars abandoned all over towns and cities but not a single one abandoned on the motorways... where you might find yourself if trying to escape something.

No - it’s the composition of the survivors. It’s all very politically correct; a mosque-going muslim, a black, female health minister, a lapsed muslim, a strong, mysterious black bloke, a female doctor with (I think) an eastern European name, the working class scouser with a dodgy past who will probably come good in the end (but maybe not)...

But no berths for the white middle class blokes (WMCB), it seems.

Not strictly true, actually - they do make an appearance, as the shotgun-wielding Dexter (strange name) - a Daily Mail reader if ever there was one; as the Claret-buried supermarket manager; as the government press officers telling huge porkies to the public; and, of course, as the sinister bloke who’s obviously up to something nasty in the lab.

The only vaguely positive WMCB is an outdoor activities centre manager who (briefly) makes the grade because he’s got good green credentials. And he, like John Prescott, is probably working class in origin...

The great pension scandal

Great to see Channel 4 news getting the bit between its teeth about one of the biggest scandals in Britain today.

I'm (and they’re) talking public sector pensions – especially at a time when many workers are looking at cutting any pension contributions they may have to make ends meet.

A whopping 90 per cent of state employees will enjoy a final salary pension. If you’re in the private sector, then that figure is just 15 per cent (and falling).

It used to be that a generous pension was seen as recompense for years of average salaries. That’s not true now, though, with many public sector workers doing very well thank you very much - and probably not for working all that hard, either.

Bigger public sector wages equal a bigger bill for public sector pensions. Who’s paying for that? The good old taxpayer - who cannot afford to put money into their own pensions because they are paying so much tax to finance the pen pushers of the town hall.

And... while the rest of us are being encouraged to work to 65 and beyond, the public sector brigade all get to call it a day at 60.

Betting on airlines

With the doom and gloom still as thick as a 1950s London smog, it is at least one thing that no more airlines have gone bust in recent weeks.

Paddy Power ran a book on which one would be next (now closed).

Sky Europe topped the at risk list at 5-2 with Alitalia in contention at 4-1. Both Spanair and Click looked worthy of a fiver at 10-1 the pair.