WHEN William Hague attempts to gain political advantage from pensioners' dissatisfaction at the 75p increase in the basic pension, he conveniently forgets that it was his own party that uncoupled pensions from earnings in the 1980s.
The fact that the increase has been so small reflects the reduction in the rate of inflation, which at least has improved.
While I don't agree with everything the Blair government does, and they do make mistakes, I feel that they mean well. This is more than can be said for the power behind the Conservative Party.
We suffered 18 years or mis-rule under a Conservative government who gave us the mishandling of the BSE outbreak; the destruction of the coal industry; and the de-nationalisation of the railway system. I personally do not feel humiliated by the so-called "hand-outs" of the winter fuel allowance and the like, but I do feel it is wrong that pensioners in Europe are much better off than here.
These inequalities can not be put right in three years but I think we now have a government that is really trying its best.
HARRY EWINGS,
Keats Road,
Greenmount, Bury.
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