[Acrylic-bob]

The point about the vagiaries of the Stock market is well made, but there are other things to invest in other than Stocks. For example, does anyone remember the British Rail Pension Fund? It put huge amounts of money into buying art and was a contributor to the rise in prices in that market. Higher prices means higher value.

If the government had on hand a pension surplus to invest when the Channel Tunnel was first mooted it could have been used to pay for the lot and taken all the profits from day one. Instead we are left with a monster that, fifteen years on still owes £6 billion and rising and will never make a profit.

An investment fund of that size could have made such a difference to the whole country as well as paying decent pensions. But isn't that Politicians all over; Short term, short sighted and self obsessed.