Pension shake-up will leave some high and dry without proper guidance

The Coversation was a good find. An mostly pragmatic and more worldly version of Wales@home.
Any talk of pensions(like here) also seems to include the assertion that without proper professional advice punters will make the wrong decisions.

7 years as a trustee of a large D.C. pension fund made me very cynical of the finanical advice industry, it is not fit for purpose, depsite recent changes. While I very much welcome the pension changes, if the financial ecosystem is too complex for a person of average inteligence and average general knowledge to make their own good decisions, then it is just too complex and in need of urgent reform. I can't see such reforms to empower Joe and Jane public happening, the various vested interests have too much stake in the current complex ecosystem and the resultant fee income continuing.

This is why Defined Benefit schemes were a good idea, they put risk and decision making generally in the hands of those who have enough knowledge to make informed decisions.

Aberystwyth bandstand : a good decision at least

A new band stand should never have been a priority and sanity has at last prevailed.

Lets hope it continues http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-mid-wales-26722136

From Sheffield to Durham - 2001-ish

Probably the most intesting 90 minutes of sitting oppositie someone on a train it was possible to have.

Leane Wood needs a new/no image consultant

Before Leadership

Now

I admire Leane as a radical politician. However, it seems she kept the image consultant of her predecessor as party leader. I guess driven by significnat pressure to conform to what is expected of a party leader in terms of looks and that is a real shame she has bowed to it.

Will voters will be less warm to the new Leane image which  in turn makes the party less credible and less electable which is bad for Wales as the current Cardiff Government need some serious competition.

Image should be irrelevant, but voters are animals governed by their  subconscious.
Will the real Leane Wood please come on down.