SKIiers, OWLS and bores

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has funded research into the attitudes to inheritance in Britain. Karen Rowlingson conducted the research and the results of her work have just been published. The report can be downloaded from the JRF web site.

This is a useful bit of research and whilst none of the conclusions are revolutionary it is nice to see that one’s views about inheritance and the 50 plus are substantiated by a bit of real research. I recommend you read the report.

In the presentation was a lovely slide that shows that the stereotype of the older person who is set upon spending as much of their children’s inheritance as possible (SKIiers) is a nice stereotype but incorrect. The more appropriate definition is of OWLS (Older people Withdrawing Loot Sensibly). This dismisses the myth of older people cuing up to blow their money on world cruises instead they are spending their money ‘sensibly’. This name (OWL) should at least ensure the report gets some coverage with the press who will see this as a good headline.

I attended the launch conference. The report was well presented and then things went down hill. The ‘key note’ speaker, a Lord Kirkwood of Kirkhope, droned on about one small part of the research findings - that inheritance is skewed towards the more affluent classes. Anybody who had spent 5 mins looking at this subject would have known this fact so it was disturbing that the esteemed Lord found it surprising.

After an interminable time and countless “my final point is” statements he told the tale of how his train had been delayed because a group of thugs (sorry disadvantaged youths) had decided to set fire to the track. Using some mysterious gyrations of logic he was able to attribute this to the lack of ‘fairness’ in the way inheritance is taxed.

At that point I departed. Thank you Joseph Rowntree Foundation but please, please get a ‘key note’ speaker who does justice to the quality of the research that you fund. So ends this rant! Dick Stroud www.20plus30.com