A new report says the Brits aren't saving enough for their pensions. Commentators have asked Tony Blair when he's going to put taxes up to pay for higher state retirement benefits, but he just grins. Not until after the election, anyway.

Britain's certainly in a much better position than much of Europe. According to Jeremy Clarkson - the motoring guru seems to be becoming an economic pundit too - in the Sunday Times:

Thanks to changes made by Margaret Thatcher in 1979 we’re going to fall short of the pensions bill by only 5%. In France they’ll miss it by 105%. In Germany it’ll be 110%. Then there’s the United States.

It's bad enough, though. But don't blame yourself, says, the ASI's own Dr Eamonn Butler, writing in The Business. Blame politicians. After all, they've 1) staged a £5b-a-year tax raid on pension funds, 2) systematically cheated on state pensions, 3) made it irrational to save because of means-testing, 4) made pensions too complicated, 5) not been brave enough to admit we have to work longer if we're going to be retired longer, 6) scrapped perfectly good savings schemes invented by their opponents, 7) mired pension planning in regulation. And 8) they've voted themselves and their officials cosy index-linked pensions, so couldn't much care.

So forget about higher taxes. The government should replace the state pyramid-selling pension with funded personal accounts like Chile did [PDF], admit we have to work longer (but we're fitter and living much longer anyway), and cut away the regulatory crap. Then it can just retire and put
its feet up.