Dear listener,

I saw Tina Turner this week at the O2 arena. And before you ask, even if I had I wouldn’t tell you whether I had a sing-along bop on the narrow and vertiginous strip of concrete in front of my seat. It was her 50th anniversary – not farewell – tour. So she may be back even though she will be 70 on 26 November. I mention that only because age and retirement are themes of the week but which have been rather forced out of our agenda by the injection of up to £150bn….see below.

Back to age. First, two judges are challenging the Ministry of Justice (is it just me or is there something Orwellian about that name?) at an employment tribunal after being forced to leave the bench because they were aged 70. There was a time when judges could go on as long as they could stagger up to the bench. But in the 1990s a judicial retirement age was fixed to prevent the totally doolally pronouncing on what the law meant. However, there was discretion to allow judges to continue on a year by year basis. This week Judge Jeremy Varcoe and his colleague Judge Stuart Southgate claimed that discretion had been applied (or rather not applied) unfairly. The case continues. M’luds are representing themselves.

Shortly after their hearing began the European Court of Justice pronounced on retirement age.  Even though age discrimination at work is now illegal, the judges decided it is lawful for employers to set a retirement age of 65 if the government has set it down nationally with social objectives in mind. That case now goes back to the High Court to see if the government has complied with the conditions necessary to allow it.

And finally, spies are to be allowed to work longer than others because “we need their experience”. John Scarlett, the head of the Secret Intelligence Service MI6, told MPs that “we need to retain staff beyond [age removed].” Although the government now admits there is a secret intelligence service and we even know the name of its boss, the age at which spies used to retire is still classified. Isn’t the British civil service “simply the best, better than all the rest”?

*** ON MONEY BOX THIS SATURDAY ***

Quantitative Easing, what the press calls printing money and the Bank of England referred to on Thursday as “issuance of central bank reserves”, has begun. In fact what it means is simply writing a big number in the credit side of its accounts and then using that to buy back things it has already sold. It certainly gives a new meaning to double entry book-keeping. At first that big number will be £75,000,000,000.00. But if that doesn’t work (how will we know?) it can be doubled. We’ll be asking what is the risk of creating, if not printing, up to £150,000,000,000.00.

Interest rates are now probably as low as they will go. A half per cent is what one commentator called “de minimis” which is Latin for “smallest amount” and certainly what many people are earning on their savings. But there are better rates out there – we heard of one over 4% this week. Find out if it’s still there.

And with rates so low, earning 6% or more is attractive – but are corporate bonds really the place to put your hard-earned?

Finally, people who can still afford to go abroad – outside Europe anyway – suffered another blow this week as Nationwide decided to charge you extra when you spend money in foreign currency outside Europe. Its charges are still lower than most others. But it could be the thin end of a fatter wedge. We find out if you can still get fee-free money abroad.

We’ll try to squeeze that quart of strong ale into the 24 minute pint pot of time. Find out what’s in and what’s out by listening to Money Box. Saturday at noon. Or if you miss that the repeat is on Sunday at 9pm. To make sure you never miss Money Box why not subscribe to our podcast – we had 150,000 downloads in January. Just go to our website http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/ where you can also listen online or look at lots of other exciting stuff, including videos.

Best wishes,

Paul

PS Don’t forget the programme taster on BBC Breakfast between quarter to nine and nine o’clock. If you miss it, you can watch it on our website.

e-mail Paul Lewis