Politicians more interested in staying in power than planning ahead to make society better

I AM a bit concerned that the General Election campaign will create an unnecessary divide between old and young, sometimes fuelled by the claim that the former have pillaged the planet without considering the future for the latter.

When I was born in 1950, my parents diligently registered my birth so the Government had 65 years to plan for my retirement and old age. During this time I was quite happy to pay whatever level of tax the Treasury deemed necessary knowing that one day I might need the same level of health and welfare support.

Across the board, I pretty much did everything they suggested by buying my own home, trying to save etc.

Admittedly much has changed since – we live longer for example – but changes like this don’t come about overnight so the Government was perfectly able to revise its forecasts year by year to take the long term impact into account.

More recently there has been the issue of net immigration to contend with, but this just exacerbates the problem rather than creates it.

Any sensible forecast contains a contingency which would have at least in part accommodated any unexpected rise in population. So why has the current demographic profile come as such a surprise to the politicians and why haven’t they over the years better prepared for it?

The answer is of course they are far more intent on staying in power to satisfy their own ambitions than acting in the best interests of the population. They talk a lot about taking “unpopular” decisions, but have singularly failed to take them early enough.

A plan may be unpopular, but if it is honestly and accurately constructed it is difficult to contest and the longer you delay, the more of a shock it becomes. So if anyone is angry, I just ask you direct the anger appropriately. Rose Collingwood