The long nights are drawing in and the 2022 valuation reporting season is finally drawing to a close. As it does, the mind of a hard-working LGPS actuary at Hymans, sitting in his study on Christmas Eve, starts to wander….

It occurs to him that his life is very much like that of Bob Cratchit, the long-suffering employee of a certain Catherine McFadyen Ebenezer Scrooge. He too sits in a cold room (he’s based in Scotland after all!) and, with energy prices being what they are, relies on candlelight.

Furthermore, and by extraordinary coincidence, he realises that the ghosts from Dickens’ famous Christmas Carol story provide a festive analogy for exploring how his firm’s LGPS communications have changed over the years.