Don't panic the power will return and now its Santillana del Mar to St Vicente de Barquera

The power did return and now we head to santillana del mar. What made me chuckle was I say Saint Jacques will provide and of course life will go on.

That is the essence of believing in fate. In my case it's trusting in fate. It's believing in what fate produces is my most majestic belief.

I honestly believe that fate around the corner is like, how would we say, good for me. I don't feel uncertain or uncomfortable. I honestly feel strongly that it will be new experience. I find that good things happen when you encounter things you weren't expecting.

I also get shit scared that I'm bluffing. I was so delighted when we stuck to the high road on our way to St Vincente de Barquera. It meant that when we did finally join the road it was short lived and we were able to get back away from the traffic and onto the beach. The stretch of coastline is quite simply magnificent, so its well worth doing again. We had got the bus to Santillana del MAr and whilst you think you'll see the sea what you get is a wee medieval town centre with everything a bit overpriced for the likes of me. The hotel we stayed in by the green was the better part of town as I found the city centre like the centre of most of the camino towns in Northern Spain, old and attractive. I found Santillana had cobbles like Pamplona, Ponferrade or Puente La Reina. Does the wee castle of Ponferrade triump over them all, for me visually yes. I maybe shouldve read some marketing literature to see why it was so good but instead we wandered found a couple of places and chilled. Next day we took off early from our lovely wee hotel. It was very reasonable, so that appealed to my modest means, and we had breakfast thrown in. Their electrics werent fully restored, a common theme as I dug out cash instead of card. I'd brought 600 with me so it proved handy. Its no suprise to see everyone has a way of getting around booking.com fees and later on in Burgos I paid 402 euro in cash and saw that the owner had rejected my booking owing to a card issue. There was no problem with getting the keys and it was a great price for 5 days in the city centre so I've no problem with it. It could unnerve you if you were travelling on a hot day and it looked like your booking had been cancelled while you had a siesta but I'd not been walking, had a receipt and so just accepted it was a normal way to operate. Taxes, fees and commissions are dodged the world over by the rich, the poor and everyone in between. When we left Santillana the route takes you up and down. Its a brilliant meander through quiet country roads as you walk 8km to get to the town that was 5km away when you started. We're on camino now, I mused, properly walking round in circles away from the noise. Our first stop was at the top of the hill with a church. I thought I'd get to light candles, I was wrong. I did get to put sun cream on, drink the juice and eat my food. We enjoyed a good 20 minute break and stretch. I like to support the cafes by going in at the every opportunity. The truth is its ok to bring your own food and stop on a bench where the views are magnificent. After doing this for 18 years I think that is by far my greatest lesson, just chill. Once we'd climbed the hill we were always going to go down and so we did until we got to the town at half way. We were given a choice to go down the hill and bypass the main road in or stick to where it looked like there would be a cafe. We took the high road, keeping the altitude and stopped for coffee. It was great to go to the toilet too. Also the energy levels are so variable I got myself an extra juice. If there's one lesson I need to keep repeating its the dioralyte message. Keeping hydrated, post cancer treatment aside, is the most forgotten thing for me. I remember once I'm done in. Later on as we descended all the way down to the magnificent wee beach, I thought the same. Hydration and hills go hand in hand. As we left sea level and climbed I noticed instead of lagging behind Simon, I was striding passed him. Considering I was out on my feet upon hitting the first hill out of Castro Urdiales I was well chuffed. It was a 15 minute hill. I took a lot of pictures back to the town. I also stood for ages admiring the view down to the hotel by the beach. It got better the higher we climbed although Simon wasnt getting much chance to admire it. I was really confused about how I had suddenly found my legs. It was exceedingly unusual. When we got to the top there was a little garden with fountains. The gardeners were in and it was a bit noisy but totally worthy of a stop. We took the water, got our breath back and soldiered on. Our next stop was as a result of keeping to the high ground. I saw a really nice cafe but Simon figured it was a wedding. We didn't see any other pilgrims but having said that, you rarely do on this stretch as there are a few ways to go and the Norte is quiet. When we did finally stop it was a great piece of cake. The local restaurant is a destination place. Most people arriving did so in cars and the tables were all being dressed for lunch when we arrived. I had a similar cake later in St Vicente de Barquera and it wasn't in the same league. We paid half the 5 euro we'd paid up the hill but quality is quality. I like treating myself on a 2 euro item not a 200 euro item. When we were walking the beach it was simply magnificent. There were the surfers, the families, beach games. Its just a big party. We got to a bar, ordered a beer and took another 20 minutes to savour it. Just to feel the ambience is everything.

Excitement building and more migration thoughts

Friday April 25th we are off to walk the camino norte stages from Bilbao to Santander. Well lets be fair its Bilbao for lunch if I have my way and then bus to castro urdiales for our overnight stay. We will walk saturday to Laredo. Sunday 27th to Noja Monday 28th walk, bus and boat to Santander. Tuesday - Friday will be Burgos or further along the Norte. An alternative plan might be to do the Irun to San Sebastien to Zarautz which Simon missed. So much fun but we can cross that bridge in due course. I'm hoing to put some pictures in which I taken from www.davewhitson.com of the routes. I liked the look of the wee crossing on google maps. not sure its real but I do hope we can go to Galiziano via the coast. Recovery from Chemo and Radiotherapy requires patience. I'm not very good at this but I had a reassuring update from Speech therapy and nutrition when they looked at me last week. Chemo brain is a thing which means my dementia is not as fast approaching as it feels. An example of how it manifests with me is I set my alarm to go off, like most people in the morning, after the masters 1am finish it was at 8.15am today. As I write it 14:55 and I'm still on 10 minute snooze alert. Until I'm doing the job I was supposed to do I snooze it for 10 minutes. It snaps me out of my slumber and I do something. I was to get milk bread and rolls after chatting to my dad. I potted a few things up and sowed a few seeds. I made him two coffees and offered him a bacon roll. We had a long conversation about economics and my theory from the 90's which has turned into 30 years war of words. My theory started in the 80's with Thatcher's adminstration getting it all wrong in my opinion on how to address the issues faced between 1979-83. I've gone on at length about these things but the problem I believe many politicians and economists have is that they look back selectively for answers. So my theories have always been about looking forward and for example modern migration. My area of expertise is closer to the wealth migration than the war zone and economic aspirant migration. I therefore base my thesis on glbal taxation for a global age on Wealth migration not poor, desperate and in many cases highly skilled people trying to earn a living. I dont have any expertise in that area but I do believe strongly that people 9especially skilled working people) are the lifeblood of an aspirant domestic local economy. My cure for providing a society therefore is to defend our borders from the wealthy trying to flee to our economy where they can get all the infrastructure free of charge as their wealth isnt taxed. Everybody in Manchester has heard of how the Glazers wandered in and acquired one of our community assets for free. The level of taxation is probably close to zero as it was all debt reversed in at an exhorbitant level. This debt was serviced by the community and the wider football community who funded sky sports and underwrote the business model. I dont blame the Glazers for being opportunistic and doing this, Hanson Trust and all the other investment trusts had for years been taking advantage of old school economics never catching up with new accounting practices. They werent the Only Ones. It was "Another Girl Another Planet", "There's no peace for the wicked", tax regimes have always been exploited by "the beast", I tell you "Its the Truth". That was a wee musical interlude, from one of my favourite bands and I'm so easily distracted by these things. We joke all the time about old dogs new tricks. It is the truth that people who make money deciphering tax regimes for avoidance love what they do as its a clever puzzle to solve and putting barriers in their way just creates more fun. As i mentioned during my privatisation dissertations, it was not wider share ownership during the privatisation or asset stripping in the mid 80's. There was not 2 million or even 6 million new shareholders. There was a patriachal/matriarchal ownership structure where one person bought shares in 20-40 people's names. Names were the thing back then, just as they are nowadays with people opening multiple betting accounts etc to get free bets or home deliery of food etc. Skilled practioners would ask their friends if the were going for them or not and then supply the cash. Some very brazen ones would write cheques on their own account to be presented to buy shares for their friends and family. I know this quite simply because I was part of the processing unit that received these cheques and applications for shares. History tells us this wasnt really documented but my point is simply this. THey enjoyed the game so much their greed became an arms race with colleagues in the pub. An arm wrestle using family and friend networks where people would apply for 50-100 different people. Imagine nowadays with technology how many mutiple applications you could make. Back then, there was little scrutiny of multiples. Eventually towards the end scrutiny was introduced on the last few privatisations but the game had moved on to the land grab of how these former state companies could now be dissected for most gain. Shame the dissection wasn't done at the beginning to maximise value for the state. City advisors, I laugh, were obviously very good at advising the decision making politicians. Some civil servants stood tall though and hats off to the Scottish office for retaining Scottish Water. I'm sure someone will eventually get their hands on it and drive a sale through but hopefully we've benefitted from having it these last 40 years. So how do we introduce a fairer taxation based on the global aspirations of all our people. Some want to work away and return with their riches, 30-40 years later. Some want to play the game of working away but pretending to still live here and topping up their NI contributions. You might think having a whole lot of wealthy people returning to where they were born would be a good thing for the local community. As Gary Stevenson's garyseconomics you tube channel will tell you its not all plain sailing. Someone returns home with £2m they buy 7 flats and rent them out. There's no CGT when they sell. They live hear off the income which they'll put through a property company, wash it gently flat, generate £150,000 in revenue but somehow only make about £12,000 which just so happens to be because they've spent it on the flats. They will pay £200,000 to £400,000 for the flats and by having some needing more work than others its very simple to improve them. This reverses your income into capital. The capital of course is free of CGT so no tax will ever be paid. What looks on paper as a rich person coming to your country to help the local economy has don nothing more than force the prices up of property. As they sell these properties one every 3 - 5 years the anticapted revenue for them means they probably sit with £300,000 in their account at any one time and can retire very comfortably living off what Gary loves calling their passive income. The more money you come to this country with the more outrageous it becomes. Billionaires launder their cash through sophisticated models so Football teams are good ways to create a notional loss while performing the age old bottle/glass, glass/ bottle tommy cooper trick. Ok, its time for the allotment, its 15:45 and I'm feeling a dyslexic urge.

blown away by Gernika

I'm not sure how I feel about my title but as we watched the horrors unfold on the screen as we made our way through the museum it was true.

Later as the planes and bombs of Hamas and the israelis cut more children to death the tears of war just ran and ran.

They could learn from Gernika but only if they want to.

I started this a year ago and I see I haven't added to it. The death toll and expansion of the middle east madness has gone wild.

After Lebanon and Iran not Saudi have got involved with buying the world cup as part of a 2034 peace plan. 

I'm not sure I get the logic but it isn't completely flawed. The middle east seems to involve Israel protecting it's borders by taking over lands to police or resettle. First renaming them then after a period of occupied territory status, doing a playing the sudetanland card. A wee tidy up project and annexe them. 

The far sighted Saudis have bought loads of defence from the west but perhaps their greatest defence will be to build a stadium so they can jointly run world cup football games with Israel and proclaim themselves the two power houses of the region. I'm not sure if that piece of paper would end up like Chamberlain's but it's worth a try.

Camino September October 2024

My schedule will be clearer on Tuesday August 13th, when Oncology at the western will hopefully have found and let me know certain bits of key information. Discovery of the primary site for targetting being uppermost in the list, but secondary thoughts extend to have the wisdom and other teeth removal, healed sufficiently to receive radiation and are other teeth in the way. Notwithstanding the Cancer Camino, the Norte, or Camino Francais will still go ahead and this is a rough timescale. Flight or train to Biarritz/Hendaye/Irun. Current prices. Edinburgh to Biarritz, Thursday September 19th 12:35 is £112.99 whereas Monday September 23rd at 13:10 is £33.99. I propse flying Monday and I will book a seat even if I end up not making it. The Santander prices drop on September 30th to £28. The starting point for Edinburgh or London still makes sense to be Soth Western France. There is a big or 2 small days walking from Biarritz, via St Jean de Luz, to Hendaye and Irun. There is a great donativo albergue in Irun with lots of free maps, pilgrim passports and other treasures, as well as the many hotels and apartments. I suggest that this is a great meeting place and the walk to San Sebastian is one Rich and I could describe for ever. Jackie and I stayed at a really good central place in San Sebastian that was not that expensive, monday - thursday so assuming the weekend is not important the monday flight is wise. San Sebastian is an hour from Pamplona. Simon and I stayed at a great wee place in the first town outside Pamplona and so a day in the city followed by a number 7 bus to the door in cizur major is a wise way to prepare for the mountain over to Puente la Reina. Stu, Rich and I missed one of the days on the way to Bilbao but with Simon in tow the mountains from Markina - Xemein to Guernika might not appeal. If I'm not there I'd recommend filling in some the Camino Francais. Rich and I did Maneru (just after Puente LA Reina) to Logrono from our base in Estella. I'd suggest after Puente you walk to Maneru or Lorca and then get the 1pm bus into Logrono and enjoy a day in the city before doing Logrono to Burgos. Monday September 23rd, srrive Biarritz Tuesday 24th arrive Hendaye/Irun Wednesday 25th arrive San Sebastian Thursday 26th arrive Pamplona Friday 27th arrive Puente La Reina Saturday 28th Logrono Sunday 29th Najera or Azofra Monday 30th Santo Domingo de las Calzadas. (stay here or bus to Belorado) Tuesday 1st October Villafranca Montes des Oca Wednesday 2nd arrive Cardenuela Rio Pico or Burgos. At this stage I will pause as I've no idea how long everyone will be out for but I'd hopefully be able to join you on the Tuesday in Villafrance Montes de Oca if I flew out a week later on Sept 30, but thats a big if. From Burgos you can get a fast train back up to Bilbao/Irun so its a good stopping point for Rich if he's on the train. Equally though if we can we carry on. Hornillos del Camino on Friday 4th Catrojeriz on Saturday 5th Fromista on Sunday 6th Arriving Leon Friday 11th October. There's a part of me that says I join you in Bilbao if my treatment takes longer and finishes in October, so the wednesday 2nd or friday 4th October flight. Variables, I like planning around the variables. Its like an never ending debate about the existence of God with a believer. You can chunter all you like but they wont listen to anything but their own voice. That's me and planning. (smiley emoji) The flight to Bordeaux is much more frequent and at only £14 worth considering as a 2 hour train to Biarritz or Hendaye is also do-able.

it started in the park

This latest addition to manifesto started in the park.

Mark had to fund his pitch in Portobello selling a product from Helensburgh.

Not many miles involved so perfect for the park and those wanting to purchase a dram or two.

I cant help thinking these pitches should be all but free, it's a public park and purveyors of all the goods on offer are actually doing the local community a huge favour by making the event. We have a similar spring fare in fountainhall road when the road is closed off for a street party of sorts. They raise money and I'm guessing it goes towards some worthy local cause.

I have long banged on about how taxation in this country is so inadequate for our needs. It's no longer a blunt instrument it's just a nonsensical piece of mis- direction but more of that later.

The park with it's stalls would prove to be an enjoyable ramble for the visitors and when we're in Victoria park in London next weekend I must have a wee ramble among their coffee and bakery stalls, I like a good cake.

So here's what I want to see as we finally understand the 21st century and how global fights with local. How can we reform Amazon - do we get them to have a pitch in your local market. I know they like a locker or two and have done deals to rent or place their lockers on many sites around the country. Do we look at their model for inspiration or even bastardise it to suit what our local needs are.

For 15m people in this country and possibly as many as 20m the cost of living crisis is real. The wages / rent /mortgage relationship is broken. What constitutes a career has equally been trashed. At least 10m people have an extra job because the main one isn't a real one. Our nurses go to Australia to work for a few years on the premise that they will be able to earn twice as much and return with a deposit and buy a house. They won't return and we've been stupid enough to shut down immigration so we have all these shortages. Some visas are being handed out in desperation to cover these shortages, the most recent beneficiary I knew was a vet. Quite amusing that our meat industry in the UK is being strangled because the abbatoirs are struggling to get Vets to certify. We desperately need to have freedom of movement again as we have all these low paid jobs to fill. I'm still trying to explain to my generation of pals that the divide is bigger than ever and a degree won't help you straddle it. It's luck and a bit of insider help.

Did nobody watch THE BIG SHORT. Did nobody realise the great corporate heist that shifted us, the global citizen further away from our society than ever before. I live near a guy who still gets an RBS pension and yet many feel should've been jailed.

He doesn't have any problem turning his heating up and he probably saves a fortune from not being able to go to the local pub which now charges £5.50 to £6 a pint.

I don't think the trickle down has trickled towards the staff who are serving the pint and still on the maximum wage. That's not a typo, the minimum wage is the maximum wage in many low paid places. In some places there's the living wage but dont trust me ask about and see how many are getting it. Ask in your fast food places and your drinking dens. It doesn't happen.

It could happen but it doesn't. Business leaders whether they be publicans, restauranters or just market stall managers dance to their own beat. 

This microscopic look at some of the service industry is just one way to extrapolate into the wider running of business like the old CEO of the post office. Her job wasn't to enhance postal workers pay and packages although she did offer that up as a defence. Like the water companies and all the utilities it was to provide profit to Divi up with the shareholders. Less wages means more profit, it's not hard sums but it's not always the case. I've always wondered why boardroom appointees need to be paid so much when the first thing they try to do is cap the pay of others. It's laughable but it's how it works. This is why the trickle down does not work. Anyone brought up on TV westerns knows someone upstream controls the water.

This is my long-winded introduction to tax reform.

We have to tax property and capital. It's quite simple. We create a society that allows for the exploitation of a market by someone. I can accept that aspect of capitalism. They are not doing it for any other reason than to get rich. Once they start to acquire real cash they hide it. That's fine that's their job if they pure exploitative capitalists but our society needs to explain the rules to them. We, the society, need the lights on and so do the exploitative capitalists or the business model doesn't work.

Why should hospital workers pay for the roads or the buses that take them to work. Why should factory workers face taxes to continue our nuclear deterrent. The only people who need a nuclear deterrent are those with something to protect. That'll be those global companies.

So how do we find a way to tax them efficiently. Quite simply tax and fine them with equity stakes. Whether they are multi nationals or simple utilities (see chess example below of water companies). Some would call this nationalisation via the back door as the water companies fines were properly biting, so would the dilution of the shareholders and the stock price would plummet. This would mean the government fines would increase and yes, quickly the company would still be private but the largest shareholders were like the banks, the state.

The same rules can be applied to the global tech giants. Facebook know how much they make from advertising and opinion shifting, Apple and Google phones are sold in shops, taxing these goods is quite simple. These companies have good audit systems and we need to rebalance their unfettered access into our markets. If Mark is paying £50 for a pitch in Portobello, Dyson can pay £50 tax for every hoover he wants to import from Singapore. We simply can't allow production overseas to be allowed to enter the UK without paying towards our overheads as a nation. We are paying the unemployment benefit for all the victims of the cruise ships and Dyson closures, while they run straight over the top of us by still being allowed to sell their goods.

We have seen the future, water and renewables are so important. Food production is essential. Care workers as I wrote in March 2020 were going to be the life blood of the next 50 years and yet we refuse to pay them for their skill and dedication. We allow unscrupulous care homes to be promulgated just because it's easier.

We need an integrated strategy that helps local populations.

I don't think the UK has the wherewithal to do this. I don't think the rates system will be properly reformed. It is a tax on property for a good reason. To get to a property you need a pavement and a road. To protect a property you fire and police services

Chess move example of water companies being regulated with a green bias.

The country generally wants the water companies to improve their standards across the board and fines to date have been very low key when you look at the environmental or personal level.

They are not doing what it says on the company tin, as set up by the then government. They are doing what was demanded by shareholders. Low risk high returns but we need to let the shareholders know it's not low risk.

We can only do this through regulation and proper finding mechanisms.

To shareholders these fines may seem Draconian but to users and environmentalists they will still a long way short.

The fines would naturally hit the investment as fines generally will come out of the Company and with their penchant for high dividends the knock on will be felt and the regulator will have failed.

Ideally the regulator takes a stake with new shares issued to cover penalties and leaving cash flow to address the issues. New shares could be issued with every fine and an obligatory rights issue created to raise the cash needed for the investment to correct what went wrong.

Shareholders will feel the dilution in the share price and will either choose to sell or take up the rights and carry on. The medicine may only last for a few years but once the company is on a former footing and the discharges, leaks and contamination corrected these water companies will be worth a fortune. Supply of treated water is key to humanity continuing, it really is that simple.

The companies know how to provide a good service but their job is to cut corners to maximise short term profit. This model is perfect for a 3-5 firm of boom and bust brand loyalty but wholly inappropriate for a long term industry essential to the survival of humanity.

We can get by without electricity but you'll find a day without water a lot tougher.

Within 3 years a stronger fining regime will see the country through stealth acquire 15% stakes in the most badly performing water companies and their share price will have halved. They will however be further ahead than others within 5 years as their infrastructure will be fit for the next 50 years not the 19th century.

This has always needed to be a partnership and left to their own devices executives will be dialled into three year performance targets that make their share options valuable. Share price has nothing to do with company performance as we all know. Performance measurement is a relative term and so good financial performance which pleases shareholders and executives has no relationship to discharges leaks and contamination. As Paul Weller sang once the public gets what the public wants and performance is always open to  interpretation. 

governed by halfwits elected by idiots

I suppose people think on July 4th our independence of thought is guaranteed as yet another government is voted in by 1 million swing voters who oscillate between the Tories and labour. Some people would describe this aimless wandering as that of a Pellegrina/os on the great Camino of life. Sleepwalking between parties as if there's a choice. The rest of the voting population don't need to think about it as they have put X in the same box religiously since being given the chance to vote.

So that leads us to age. Yes a great vote winner in this campaign is the Labour leader offering 16 year olds the vote. In 5 years time everyone currently aged 11 and above will get a chance to exercise their democratic right. As labour voters historically leave the party after 25 years and move to the right this will give them a small lift but it won't solve the cookie jar problem.

Whenever people have a biscuit tin, there's always someone trying to grab the bourbons.

Or aa the Tories tell you whatever Labour manger to invest in we will divest it as soon as possible, primarily to put pals.

When I studied economics in 1980, the real question we were posed was about our industrial economic sickness. We were given books on it and the answer was that workers and management were always at loggerheads.

That wasn't the real answer but it had been the primary rule of the 70's for passing exams.

The explosion of the 1980's ransacking of the state owned assets was straight out of the french revolution but instead of the aristocratic classes being beheaded it was the state that lost its head. The UK was up for sale to the highest bidder although in most cases it was the sharpest and often lowest bidder. Vast state owned industries were collapsed into piles of cash and corporate fees. A superb piece of theft in plain sight.

From planes, trains and automobiles, to shops, steel and coal. Water, even electricity. If you couldn't see it or touch it you could sense it worse worth something.

Against all of this Scottish water never got privatised. Like Liverpool and it's stance against the Sun, a couple of good civil servants delayed long enough for a change in policy.

So will independence see Scottish water privatised. Ha ha that would be ironic. I hope not but I do hope that there's still a strength in Scotland to see past the many lies and continue to strike a blow for the bloody nose brigade. We are unlikely to ever return to Europe but we have more chance of getting our immigration issues addressed if we have a large independent minded set of MPs. Labour let a lot of people down under Blair as they concentrated their efforts on the 1m floaters rather than the 55m residents. When Labour had that majority they should've passed legislation that would ensure the voting system would reflect society not this mad electoral college type nonsense. I like to think of myself as European and I may end up having to give up and migrate there. I won't be the first or last to leave home and get on my bike but it is sad to be chased out. I've lived on the southside for 58 of my 61 years and all I want is more people to be able to come here and call it home. I'd like more people to come here and care for me too in the coming years, especially as all our people are having to go overseas to pay off their student debt and maybe raise enough cash for a house deposit.

The housing crisis is at all level. When someone on £25k can't buy a house it's mad. I written about the economics of property and commented on Stiglitz thoughts on it. Quite simply taxation needs massive reform and housing needs to be affordable. If housing isn't affordable then the wages pressure is astronomical. This inverted bubble, also called the coat of living crisis is real and requires legislation and taxation.

Really, can you slip a rizla paper between these parties and their attempts to fix it?

camino kids tax

Tax planning for retirement is something many people started years ago and now they walk their first camino paid for by some good planning.

In the UK it's particularly important in the last few years before retirement to put as much savings into your pension put. 

You should not pay 40% tax or 42% in Scotland on any of your income. You should use savings 15 month credit cards of interest-free whatever tactic you need to ensure that you swell this pension pot.

I was proud to pay £500,000 income tax by age 46 but instead of making it to £1m I looked around and only saw tax dodgers.

So I drew the conclusion that self-flagellation was a pointless pursuit especially when it came down to income tax.

If you pay 40% tax on £10,000 of you income ( or in Scotland 42%) then you must put it in a pot and draw down from savings or use a credit card with a long date.

If you put £6000 (£5800) net into the pension it will immediately become £10000.

This is in your pot, a SIPP, as cash. It does not need to be invested. 

When you come to draw it down you get 25% tax free, £2500. The rest of your £10,000, ie £7500, you will pay your normal tax rate on. As you aren't working it won't be 42%>

If that is 20% you will pay only £1500 tax and get £6000 back plus your £2500 so £8500.

So you sacrifice £6000 after tax and you get £8500.

As soon as you start drawing down a pension you can only pay £3000 in a year. If you are working when you start to draw down you would take the tax free element only as your top line tax might still be 42%. I would only recommend this in the last year of you working depending on circumstances. I would absolutely recommend it for anyone who was made redundant late in life and was unlikely to pursue a high paying job.

It's important to know that it is April 6-april 5th tax years that apply not how old you are or calendar years.

Do this for 3 years and you'll have £30,000 in a SIPP or £18000 in an ISA if you choose to pay the tax instead.

Government changes as does legislation this could happen in Scotland or the UK.

Never think an ISA is safe as governments can and often do tax savings.

In the SIPP, all of your 30000 can be drawn down in year one, £7500 would be tax free with £22500 taxed @20% so £4500 tax leaving £18000 plus £7500 =£25500.

Plenty cash for that first CAMINO!!