Pensions nettle has yet to be fully grasped

When people start talking about their pension, you know that they are old, or else old before their time.

Discussions on pensions are normally the preserve of the technically minded. The rest of us usually have difficulty suppressing a yawn or two when the subject comes up for discussion. It is not a topic that stirs the blood, which may explain why the mainstream trade union movement found it hard to get exercised on the subject until recently.

As a result, some less scrupulous employers were quick to capitalise on such representative inertia, launching surreptitious raids on corporate pension funds during the fat years when the eye of the unions was not sufficiently on the pensions ball.