The real reason we will all have to work until 75

BaRONESS altmann rightly criticises proposals to raise the pension age to 75 by 2035. But the problem of how to cope with paying pensions when millions of people are living longer should have been tackled years ago.

In 1994, I was invited before the House of Commons Social Security Select Committee to be questioned on pension reform. This was after retirement pots had been plundered by employers.

despite putting forward suggestions to protect pensions and fund them long term, my proposals were ignored.

a former president of the Institute of actuaries told me: ‘I thought your paper was a masterpiece. It demonstrated that the personal experiences of members of the public can be far more telling than the representation of the experts in pressing for reform.’ Gordon Brown has been described as the ‘man who stole your old age pension’. However, it was only private pensions that were hit by his £5billion a year raid. Those employed by the state were unaffected.

Had governments listened to my key advice to make pensions compulsory for all and for people to contribute an extra 0.3 per cent to 0.5 per cent each year to their pension fund over 20 to 25 years, we’d not be where we are now.

The pension crisis is not a case of hindsight, it is one of ignorance and arrogance. JAMES WIGNALL, Accrington, Lancs.

Give me a job!

HaVE the powers-that-be thought through their plans to make people work until they’re 75? There are laws against ageism, but it still exists in many companies. I was made redundant, after 45 years’ work, aged 59.

In the next three years, I applied for 400 jobs, had two interviews and six letters saying ‘thanks, but not suitable’.

The other 392 companies simply ignored me.

Tell me that age was not a consideration in those rebuttals. Of the two interviews, one was a token virtue signal that the firm did consider older applicants.

It is all well and good for the Government to say we must work until 75, but what company will employ you?

MIKE JAMES, Nottingham.

Sickening situation

I Had the misfortune to have to spend time in a major Scottish hospital recently, visiting a family member who had an accident.

We spent every day in the groundfloor cafe, people-watching. We reckoned at least 70 per cent were fat, obese or morbidly obese — many stuffing their faces with cakes, doughnuts and fizzy drinks.

We also noted patients passing us in their pyjamas to go outside for a smoke surrounded by no smoking signs — in an area adjacent to the entrance knee-deep in cigarette ends. We also witnessed one patient being wheeled out by a nurse for a smoke.

I think we all know what needs to be done but no politician has the guts to say it — people need to help the system by looking after themselves.

ALAN BELL, Edinburgh.

Serving up blame

CaTERERS of Britain beware — you are about to have the obesity crisis dumped on your lap. Our ruling political class need someone to blame and it’s going to be the small businessman yet again.

I speak as a retired caterer of many years and l don’t believe loading up menus with details on calories and fat content will work.

adults should be responsible for their own behaviour and they could start by using the word ‘no’ more often.

GORDON SCOTT, Largs, Ayrshire.

Boost energy output

THE recent failure of the National Grid shows electricity supply is very close to demand in the UK.

If we assume that a modest 10 per cent of all cars — that is three million — are electric by 2025, most drivers will arrive home between 5pm and 7pm and plug into an electrical socket.

That will be 9,000 megawatts of electrical demand on the National Grid, which is equivalent to seven new power stations with the output of Sizewell B nuclear power station.

How long has Hinkley Point C nuclear power station been in the design and construction stage and when will it be producing energy?

No other major new power station will be ready by 2025 and the demand will rise every year as the number of electric cars rises.

If the shortfall is to be met by cheap and quickly built diesel generation, what effect will that have on climate change?

SHEILA OWEN, Anglesey.

Not afraid of Project Fear

WITH Project Fear threatening we will be starved, sick, in darkness without electricity and any sort of fuel after Brexit, can someone explain how our suppliers in Europe will survive?

I can’t see Spain and Portugal throwing fresh veg into landfill when they have the infrastructure to grow it for our markets.

Neither can I see the danes not shipping us bacon or potatoes. How are the Polish going to find a new market for the thousands of tons of mushrooms we consume a week? What about all the dairy goods we import which results in huge payments to EU farmers?

Business will carry on regardless with or without a deal. Containers arriving at our shores are already part of a huge computer-based infrastructure of taxes, duties and shipping instructions. There isn’t a man on the dockside counting washing machines.

DAVE TUTT, Chatham, Kent.

Sidetracked by stone

THE latest distraction by the SNP is to make a big issue of returning the Stone of destiny from Edinburgh Castle to the city hall in Perth. The bulk of Scottish people would rather the Scottish Government concentrated on improving education and the NHS — and fixing more potholes!

ANDREW KERR, Stirling.

Pay up properly

SO the University of Glasgow is to pay £20million in reparations over its guilt in receiving donations from people who profited from the slave trade. Can I suggest, instead of the money going to research, events and public awareness, that the money goes to modern-day descendants of slaves, many of whom live impoverished lives?

Universities have also been profiting over many decades from fossil fuels, both directly and indirectly. Can I suggest therefore that they also pay reparations for all the nasty greenhouse gases they are responsible for?

GEOFF MOORE, Alness, Ross-shire.