Andrew Marr’s analysis (Inside Westminster, 17 October) is spot on. But he doesn’t follow through with the conclusion – to means test the old-age pension. Fairness demands it. Even if only 10 per cent of pensioners are wealthy, why pay them a pension? £17.5bn per annum would be saved, and more in the future. Wealthy boomers didn’t contribute to this pension by paying adequate tax (the UK has more debt now than ever before). They have benefited from rising asset prices, often have corporate-funded, defined-benefit pensions that hardly anyone under the age of 60 was ever offered and have enjoyed tax incentives to save that barely exist any more. Enough’s enough. Welfare is for the poor, not the old. If this is unthinkable policy, why is other welfare means tested?
Labour needs a mission that cuts through with voters. It also needs an enemy, as any populist leader will tell you. If the mission is fairness, the enemy is middle-class welfare. Those who would miss out from a means-tested pension wouldn’t vote for Keir Starmer anyway. Of all the choices facing the Chancellor, this is more palatable than most. Like Andrew, I’ll likely be one who misses out under this regime, but if it is not implemented, there won’t be any money left when I retire anyway.
Matt Hammond, London NW3
Out with the old?
Andrew Marr’s admonition to Rachel Reeves not to neglect our nation’s youth is timely, given we are led to believe 16-year-olds are shortly to receive the right to vote. He points out that “oldies” (like me) vote in much greater proportion than our youngsters: in 2019 only 47 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted, compared to 74 per cent of those over 65. It follows that governments reflect this by favouring us with policies like the triple lock on pensions. One might suppose that if young people voted in greater numbers, they might find governments handing them a few goodies?
But I recently talked to a few dozen 16-to-18-year-old school pupils and found a worrying disengagement from anything political. Not one claimed to have any interest in politics and, assuming they do get the vote, not one intended to exercise it.
Bill Jones, professor of political studies, University Liverpool Hope
As a pensioner who retired at 74, I pay tax on my modest state and small private pensions. I’m fairly taxed on earnings. The real issue isn’t pension income or taxable earnings; it’s tax-avoided wealth which can disadvantage the younger generation.
Sally Litherland, Salisbury
Andrew Marr suggests that pensioners wield disproportionate power by voting. The remedy for younger voters who feel disadvantaged by this subversive practice is obvious. As someone who, after 44 years of full-time work, is now semi-retired (I work part-time for my local parish council), may I be permitted to vote in local elections, where I have skin in the game, if I agree to abstain in general elections and accept whatever largesse the youth-conscious government of the future deems fair?
Steve Kerry, Alveley, Shropshire
Channel for despair
I read the letters in response to the 10 October Cover Story about small boats (Correspondence, 17 October). Were it not for the clear-sighted, dispassionate analysis of Andrew Marr, I could have been reading the Guardian! Care4Calais, the Refugee Council and similar organisations, along with a coterie of MPs, seem unable to tell us where resources are to be found to provide proper housing, jobs, healthcare and other welfare provision for the stream of asylum seekers/economic migrants that arrive on our shores. So what of the needs of the families who already live here, call the UK their home, but who cannot find decent accommodation, work, schooling, medical and social care? That is, who cannot find a halfway decent chance in life?
To make such comparisons is to be labelled a “racist”, or a “fascist”, or a wild-eyed, violent member of the far right! This is the way a large number of decent, liberal people are labelled. The immigration fiasco is one part of the disillusionment, even despair, felt by ordinary folk.
Brent Charlesworth, Lincoln
I read with dismay your Cover Story on the suffering in the pop-up camps around Calais. Added to the deaths of those, attempting to cross the Channel, I am left with a profound sense of grief. And anger. Anger at the failure of governments on both sides of the Channel that have created and propogated this tragedy. There is only one realistic way to end this continuously compounding misery: removal of all and any hope of remaining in the UK if arrival is via a small boat. Suggesting otherwise betrays an increasingly grotesque disregard of the reality of human nature.
Julian Lyons, London SE14
A fan of his early work
Will Dunn quotes from the Edward Thomas poem “The Combe” (The Sketch, 17 October), but makes a mistake saying “it was one of his last poems before he was killed in the First World War”. According to Edna Longley’s annotated edition of the poems, Thomas wrote his first poem, “November”, on 4 December 1914, and “The Combe” on 30 December of that year. That makes it one of the first of the 144 poems in the Edward Thomas canon.
Chris Moore, London SW4
A Gove-able feast
Kevin Maguire notes Michael Gove’s patronising of Pret (Commons Confidential, 17 October). When he was education secretary, Gove was often seen walking to buy his own lunch – unlike most ministers. I, a civil servant, was told to vary my routine in case of attack. Gove seemed oblivious to such advice, though considerably more of a target.
Martin Post, West Sussex
Lord, help the mister
As a Catholic who was taught by Catholic nuns, I so enjoyed Lamorna Ash’s column (Contact, 17 October). Who could blame these women for their desire to return to their convent? Thankfully, their saviours appreciated their homesickness and rescued them. You can take the nuns out of the convent, but you can’t take the convent out of the nuns. May they reside there until they die, after lives well-lived, and so respected by the local community.
Judith A Daniels, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk
Alan Faragetridge?
Steve Coogan’s Alan Partridge (The New Society, 10 October), with his Daily Mail views, “old git” wardrobe and politically incorrect verbiage, is surely a depiction of a Reform voter, if not the great Nigel Farage himself. Next, Coogan should make Partridge a satirical Reform politician.
Sally Wilton, Bournemouth
Discontent on the continent
Finn McRedmond’s observations on London’s pizza scene struck a chord (Silver Spoon, 17 October). After a rewarding day spent walking Pompeii’s ancient streets recently, it felt appropriate, in Naples that evening, to order a Vesuvio. While it wasn’t flung at me like a frisbee (or discobolus), it was laden with so much salty formaggi that hours later, I was sleepless from a raging thirst – the same gasping insomnia had we frequented a certain PizzaExpress, Woking.
Richard Baker, London SE24
Finn McRedmond’s seasonal melancholy is tipping over into pure grumpiness. In our family, the Champagne Bar at St Pancras is a totemic spot that has marked the start of priceless occasions. Expeditions to Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe, Fondation Louis Vuitton exhibitions and birthday celebrations in Paris have all kicked off there. We have also discovered that in an overcoat I look exactly like John Betjeman. As for conducting extramarital affairs at Carluccio’s, I couldn’t possibly comment, but I have been made happy by their spaghetti alle vongole. On the other hand, Finn, if you want to wallow in grumpiness, come up here to Keighley.
Tim Appelbee, Sutton-in-Craven, Keighley
My word is my bond
I agree that if we want to solve the housing crisis we should look to the Victorians (Future Perfect, 17 October). We should revive the social reformer Octavia Hill’s idea of 4 per cent philanthropy. One of the barriers to high-quality affordable housing is governments’ unwillingness to commit public capital to housing. However, I would be willing to buy housing bonds, attracting a modest rate of interest, if I knew my money would be spent on good-quality housing, offered on secure terms to people in need. If it worked then, it could work now.
Adam Penwarden, Brighton
Matters of the heart
So, dating app companies are turning their priorities to profit at the expense of users (Out of the Ordinary, 17 October). Never thought I’d be drawing that parallel with privatised utilities…
Rob Ingram, Bovey Tracey, Devon
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This article appears in the 23 Oct 2025 issue of the New Statesman, Doom Loop