Know Your Voters

One of the standards by which any society measures its decency is its generosity towards the elderly.

 

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, is harping on this theme at the moment repeatedly, announcing that pensions would rise by at least 2.5 per cent a year over the next parliament if he were re-elected in 2015. The key point being……if he were re-elected.

 

Let me enlighten you further……

 

- The General Election is next year.

 

- 1 in 6 of the voters next year will be over 65.

 

- In the 2010 election, 76 per cent of over-65’s voted and this is expected to rise next year.

 

You get where I am going with this…..the importance of pensioners as a voting block is huge.

 

So the next time David Cameron comes out with “In a civilised society, knowing you’re going to have a decent state pension is a really powerful thing,” consider what the real message is. 

 

Quite a whiff of political calculation pushing the moral compass concerning the need to grant people “dignity and security in their old age” me thinks.

 

With the General Election fast approaching expect all sense of dignity, morality and basic common sense to go out of the window.

 

Has it ever been otherwise?