Up until this week I had not thought much about my pension.

It was something I would worry about when the time came -- if it ever did.

In the meantime I was happy to fritter away my money on booze (alcohol free), cricket DVDs (Tuffers Duffers) and the odd night out with the boys (Ziggy's house).

But the recent debate about pensions had made me realise that, if by chance I ever get past 60, I'm going to have to wait for another 10 years to retire.

And by the time I get to 70 they will probably have increased the retirement age by another couple of years.

It seems they want us to work and then work some more.

And if we're not working right up until we take our final breath we are 'sponging off the state.'

I'm all for working but I think there comes a time in a man's life when he realises he has nothing else to say of use so should hang up his keyboard.

Not that retirement seems anything to look forward to with the amount your average pensioner has to live off.

Pensioners get a raw deal whichever way you look at it.

The only reason I think pensioners actually get a look in is the well-known fact that they vote in huge numbers.

But this doesn't mean that successive governments still manage to treat them with more and more disdain.

There should be no amount of cost-cutting and 'black holes' in the budget for the hard-working folk of this country. Now that would certainly gets my vote.

And if common sense does not prevail there, it should by now have become pretty obvious that we are not going to win the war in the Iraq.

It's not going to matter how much more money we spend and how many more PR stunts we pull.

President George Bush and his mates in Downing Street should have read the history books and then maybe we wouldn't be in this mess.

The US is spending about $6bn a month on this war and it's probably costing us millions too. More importantly it's costing more and more of our soldiers' lives.

'No war has ever been won on a timetable' was the latest statement to come out of Washington. Maybe 'No war has been won on a pack of lies' would have been more to the point.