I trusted Vince and he is robbing me of £10k

Last week I committed the cardinal sin of watching BBC’s Question Time. The present Mrs Lowe generally prevents me from viewing it, as the usually well right of centre majority of panellists rob me of my normal good humour with their mad prejudices.
However I spotted Vince Cable on the panel, who always seemed to be on the side of good sense and humanity, so I thought I would hear what he had to say. A question was asked about the state pension age rising from 65 to 70.

Vince Cable blithely sat there and said they were doing this because many men were being prevented from working past the age of 65 and this was an injustice.

What you are actually doing, Mr Cable, ranted I at the screen, is robbing me of nearly £10,000, which I have actually given to the Government over the last 40 years.

Before you query my figures, I did not opt out of SERPS, which was on offer the last time we had a Government whose main targets were the poor, the sick and those who want to come and live and work here.

So, if I reached the glorious age of 65, which is not as far away as I would like, I would have been getting a state pension of near £10,000. Now I will have to wait until I am 66.

I may have retired by then anyway, as I am fortunate enough to have other pensions. So it is a straight steal of my money.

Many people, within reason, can retire when they choose and of those most choose to retire early rather than wait until their 65th birthday.

For them ‘retire’ is often the wrong word. As a friend of mine said, he does not want to stop working but just wants to escape the drudge of being a ‘wage-slave’.

There is also some evidence that the longer you work full-time, the shorter your life expectation.

As the retirement age goes up and up, it will be the poorer end of the wage market that suffers most, as they are most reliant on the state pension.

Some of those that have retired early will also be worried, as their plans of bridging the gap before their state pension comes on tap will have to be redrawn.

In these cases private company pensions are often front-end loaded, so they actually go down in value when the receiver hits his or her 65th birthday.

All these people will be somewhat worried at what the Government is doing, and by the glib assertion from Mr Cable that it is only to give us the opportunity to work past our 65th birthday.

For many it will be forcing them to work past their 65th birthday, as otherwise they will be destitute.

It appears that, on the quiet, a hard-fought-for agreement is being torn up. That is, we the citizens pay universal taxes and get in return universal benefits.

Education, NHS, pensions, benefits are all apparently up for discussion, as we ‘need’ to make massive cuts.

I see none of my suggestions made the chopping board which prompts me to ask what happened to the debate we were promised? I have calmed down now, but will not watch Question Time and no longer have any faith in Vince Cable.

I LIVE in Bedfordshire. I just want to make that point to the councils currently ripping down old Bedfordshire County Council signs and replacing them with their own.

I fully understand that Bedfordshire County Council no longer exists. But the signs used to say ‘Welcome to Bedfordshire’, which, so far as I am aware, still does exist.Now signs say ‘Welcome to Bedford Borough’, at the borders of its political curtilage.

Why could not Bedford Borough signs still say ‘Welcome to Bedfordshire’. They would have more meaning, be more inviting and sound less pompous and vain.

Or even saved the £11,000 and just left them alone. No-one would really have minded. Except maybe a few councillors.