Giggles and Gabions
The Pensions Bill is a very important measure which I'm told will bring the number of women getting full pensions on retirement up from about 40% to 75%. It's one of those bills which are referred to as a "parity measure" because it is essentially bringing benefits here into line with the rest of the UK.
But the truth is that the details are very technical and it must have been the dry nature of the subject matter which got to the Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie at about ten minutes past one this afternoon when she appeared to be fighting a fit of the giggles. I couldn't tell what set it off but she was documenting various actuarial practices at the time.
Her Committee Chair Gregory Campbell appeared to sympathise with her when he referred to the details as "glaze over" material.
As a complete non sequitur, who out there knows what a gabion is? I must confess I had never heard of the word and if faced with it in a version of "Call My Bluff" I would probably have assumed it to be a small South American rodent.
However the Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew has told the West Tyrone MP Pat Doherty that she has no plans to build gabions on Killyclogher Burn at the rear of Knockmore bungalows, to prevent the erosion of properties there.
For those who like me were blissfully unaware of the existence of the gabion, here's a Wikipedia link to explain what Ms Gildernew is talking about.
I'm 
°ä´Ç³¾³¾±ð²Ô³Ù²õÌýÌý Post your comment