An open letter to Gordon Banks....

[Papaumau]

As Gordon Banks MP is my local Labour MP I felt that writing a letter to him using the "Write To Them" website might be a good thing to do just before the general election.

Obviously, as a pensioner myself, I felt that this letter should be couched to take in the plight of the British pensioners at this time.

Here below is a draft of the conversation so far:

Dear Gordon Banks,
>
> I used to be a Labour supporter but now I find myself regularly voting for
> the SNP..... Sad, isn't it ?
>
> With the Labour party lurching to the right under Mr Blair and Mr Brown
> doing nothing to bring the party back home to it's roots I find it
> impossible to support the party that my senses tell me I should be
> supporting. ( I AM a Socialist still ).
>
> I am also a pensioner and of all of the causes that are close to my heart,
> ( I own and run a busy consumer website called
> http://www.rippedoffbritain.forumotion.net ), the cause of fighting for a
> decent basic state pension for the poverty-stricken elderly in this
> country is uppermost in my thoughts.
>
> ( I do NOT want to hear of the excuses found in the information that the
> government cannot afford to pay the pensioners a decent pension as if they
> tried to find the money in the total taxation pot BEFORE spending it
> elsewhere I am sure that this finance could be found. All that is needed
> is the will to do the job and the need to prioritise this requirement ).
>
> Mr Brown has promised to reconnect the state-pension rate with the average
> earnings rate but for some unknown reason he delayed this re-connection
> for five years from his original promise ??
>
> Now the pensioners of Britain have the worst standard of basic state
> pension in greater Europe among the countries that compare with us.
>
> I recently found out that the number of pensioners in Britain has reached
> nine point eight million souls and I would think that maybe it is time
> that our political representatives started to pay attention to the wishes
> of this large number of voters when one considers that the greatest number
> of actual voters usualy comes from within this demographic.
>
> I hope that you are paying attention to this desire and that if you are
> returned to power at the general election you may want to keep these
> thoughts to the front of your mind.
>
> Please look at this website and see these figures in a colourful graph:
>
> http://www.justiceforpensioners.com/barchart.JPG
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> Paul R ******


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


His reply:

Dear Mr ******
>
> I thank you for your email and understand the concerns you express.
>
> On the value of the basic state pension I fully understand the campaign
> for its growth and indeed the graph you refered me to is stark but I
> obviously have no idea what contributions etc are made overseas, nor what
> other support is available in the UK, (to I would have to agree often the
> poorest), that may not be available elsewhere.
>
> However since 1997 there have been some significant changes
>
> In 1997 the Basic State Pension for a single pensioner was £62.45 from
> April 1 2010 it will be £97.62. Likewise for couples it has grown from
> £99.80 to £156.15
>
> In addition there is now a Guaranteed Minimum Income of £132.60 (single)
> and £202.40 (couple)therefore the real growth since 1997 for the poorest
> pensioners is in the region of 90-100%
>
> Additionally Pension reform has reduced the number of years required to
> get a full state pension from 44 years for a male and 39 years for a woman
> to 30 years for both so many more will qualify for a full pension,
> especially more women.
>
> I would also like to point out that the Government has undertaken to
> reinstate the link to earnings for pensions in the next parliament.
>
> I note that you find yourself regularily voting for the SNP and personally
> I think this is disappointing as in a UK parliament the SNP can never be
> in government and therefore never be in a position to deliver the
> objectives that you hold.
>
> A vote for the SNP increases the likelyhood of a Tory government and you
> can see from the pension level in 1997 how much they valued pensioners.
>
> I do hope that when the election comes you will feel able to consider what
> I do believe have been significant improvements in payment levels and the
> other realted issue to which I refer above
>
> That more can and should be done is not in doubt, but who will do it for
> pensioners if Labour doesn't?
>
> Best wishes
>
> Gordon


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


My reply to him:

Dear Mr Banks,

Thank you for your prompt reply to my letter and while I understand your
position I am not really interested in what has gone before.

Successive governments have not put the plight of the British state
pensioner in the situation that it merits and the "tinkering" that you tell
me about is - in my estimation - just a way to placate some of us without
spending any real money on this problem.

I do understand that the government are in an unenviable position of being
deeply in debt and while I also understand that much of this debt has been
thrust upon the government with national and world conditions after the bank
debachle and the recession, I STILL feel that the need for a decent basic
state pension that equates with a modern cost of living should be an
uppermost priority for this or any other government instead of being
continually pushed to the bottom of the spending pile.

Yes, the Prime Minister said that he would EVENTUALLY reconnect the state
pension to average earnings but his delay at doing this is not appreciated
by us and the fact that he has never mentioned if any of that lost money
would be backdated if and when the average-wage ratio was reconnected
leaves us thinking that once again we are going to be ripped off for what we
are due.

I do not agree that a vote for the SNP in a national election is a vote for
the Tories as I - listening carefully to the opinion polls - now feel that
every vote that goes to the Liberal Democrats and the other parties like the
Greens is a vote for true democracy whereby a result that showed no overall
majority for the big useless two would also ensure that the smaller parties
might hold the balance of power where some sense might be injected into
British politics.

I would not like the Tories to get a majority and to this end I feel that
Cameron is just not heavyweight enough and his wishy-washy attempt to catch
the imagination of the unhappy electorate is just not working for him or his
party.

All this said I just hope that you keep in the forefront of your mind that
the largest voting bloc in Britain - that are actually liable to want to get
to the polls - will be the grey vote and that bloc will be looking for
radical ideas appearing at the reading of the Labour Party manifesto.

Not wishing you or your party any harm at the general election, but Labour,
or should I more correctly say NEW-Labour, has failed to work for it's
expected demographic and it is maybe now a bit too late to get back what it
has lost.

NB...I plan to copy this conversation to my own pensioners sub-forum and to
the dedicated Pensioners Forum at:
http://www.pensionersforum.co.uk/index.php

Regards....

Paul R ******

[Papaumau]

Ten views but no takers eh ?

Maybe I am pricking your consciences when I show that we ALL can be effective in fighting this war when we do it personally eh ?

Do you guys and gals not think that it is good that we have the internet at our disposal so that we can use it to concentrate the minds of our political representatives ?

Do you not think that we should use EVERY tool at our disposal so that these "servants of the people" know how we feel and know that we are going to take our feelings, our wishes and their actions to the world ?

Why don't some of YOU people talk to your political representatives and bring what they say - if they have the courage to reply to you - to this forum and others on the internet ?

[avalonmpk]

A Land of Hope and Glory mother of the free....
Debt riddled and miserable.....
No more of Gordon Brown for me!!!! (anybody but him)

[Hells Granny]

I regularly contact my MP on many matters (I'm sure he groans when my email addy flashes up!).

He has been extremely helpful to me on many issues, and was not implicated in the expenses scandal, being one of the first to publish his expenses.

He's very active in his constituency, publishes a column in our local rag each week, and is always courteous and available to us. Couldn't ask for a better guy.

OK, He's a Tory, but they don't all have horns and a tail!

Cheers, HG

[Papaumau]

Yeah HG...use em and abuse em as that is what they are there for !

Too many people forget that they are our public servants and they should do what WE want !

And avalonmpk......

That goes for all of the parties and not just the one that is nipping your head at the moment !

[cheddar-caveman]

So do I gather you live north of the border Pap? By the way, how did you get your picture under your name?

[John]

This is my first view and this is my first comment.

I am regularly in contact with the political rank and file at all levels.

Do not moan and groan - if you have something to say. You have the means to say
it with the internet. The means to raise that query.

The quality of the reply is also a gauge of what those who represent are really about.

Local Councillors seem to be imbalanced between those who want the position but
want no responsibility and those that really take an interest.

[Papaumau]

To CC.....

Yes, I am Scottish and proud of it !

As far as getting your piccie under your name is concerned please refer to the "Post a pic" thread.

And John....

Yes, our public representatives at all levels are bound by their positions as public servants to try to respond to all of our requests and wishes but if we are to get the best out of them we have to get all of our ducks nicely in a row and present them in a pleasant and thoughtful manner.

It is sometimes easy to get overawed by the power of these individuals and some might see their positions as hard to reach up to. They are NOT up there on a pedestal, they are at ground level and supposed to be doing what we want of them. That is why we are called constituents.

[Hells Granny]

If you don't like the people in power, don't sit on your hands-- Vote them out!

If you don't vote you have no right to complain in my view. If voting was compulsory as it is in OZ, there would be a more representative Government.

Cheers, HG

[cheddar-caveman]

This was an open letter I sent to my local MP, Heathcoat-Amory, Cameron and our local paper:

I, my family, and our parents before us, have always voted for the Conservative and would like to continue to do so. However, we, and I’m sure many thousands others in this area, are now faced with two major dilemmas.

Firstly, our local MP is David Heathcoat-Amory and we just can’t bring ourselves to vote for this man who has proved himself to be little short of a crook and who’s only interest in life seems to be to accumulate as much wealth as possible at our expense. To accomplish this he is only a part time MP, having a further six jobs on the go. He claims that his London house is his main home, although he represents and votes here in Somerset, so that he can claim huge sums of money on his “second” home here. He is probably the most “anti Europe” MP in parliament but was happy to claim over £100k in Euros from Farm Aid last year and of course there are the famous manure, mouse poison and lettuce plants claims made against his “expenses”, all to help maintain his lavish lifestyle. Oh and don’t forget his vast estate in Scotland no doubt also funded by us one way or another!

As a pensioner, having to live on my state pension in spite of having served in the Royal Naval submarine Service for which I get nothing, I cannot justify voting for this man and thereby keeping him in a position where he can continue to steal from us.

The second dilemma we have is your promise to repeal the hunting ban. I cannot see where you are coming from with this agenda. That a few people in this country get pleasure from animal cruelty for sport is abhorrent but for you as a possible future Prime Minister to support this is unacceptable. Every pole indicates that the vast majority of people in this country, more than 80%, are fully supportive of the hunting ban so why you think it right to overturn it I don’t know. One thing I do know is that this may gain you a few votes from the hunt supporters but it will lose you a lot more from decent, civilised, anti cruelty people like us.

[John]

Is he not standing down (getting pay off of course)?

[cheddar-caveman]

Unfortunately not. It's high time we had a younger man there, one who hasn't ripped us off for so long. I wish we could just vote for a party rather than a man. It really irks me, on my state pension, having to support this man whos perks give him more than this!

[Geezer]

In Britain before the attack on occupational pensions many employees were in final salary pension schemes. The vast majority used a accrual rate of 60ths. The Inland Revenue regulations limit the pension payable to 2/3rds of final salary. Ergo in such a scheme you needed to pay in for 40 years to achieve maximum pension 40/60ths = 2/3rds.
Not easy, but for people who worked in banks and white collar workers in general  it was not unusual to stay in one job all their working lives. Far fewer manual workers came into pension schemes until the 60s when it was realised by governments that the cost of even our state pension would put a very heavy tax burden the state.
When Gordon Brown removed the tax breaks from occupational pensions employers became unwilling to contribute their part of the pension fund and now we have a situation where our state pension is well below par for Europe and final salary occupational pensions are deemed to be unaffordable by employers.
In contrast to this precarious situation we have to consider the scheme that MPs sorted out for themselves. Their scheme accrues at 40ths, MPs with 27 years "service" can retire on maximum 2/3rds pension,  at current rates this is just short of 47,000 per year. I seem to be out of space so I can't tell you about the other perks. Take a guess and then double it.

[Papaumau]

Did he reply to your letter CC ?

I would be interested to read what he had to say about your points raised.

Did you tell him that you were going to publish your letter to him on the internet, as if you did you might have given him a bit of a shake ?