It’s freezing out! How long until we hear of the first cold-weather death of a pensioner?

When I woke up this morning (October 30), the temperature outside was -6C and the cat was begging me to let her get into bed with me to get warm.

It seems autumn has been and gone, and we have made the transition from balmy summer into frigid winter with the kind of rapidity that some people find hard to accommodate – especially those who are past retirement age.

It seems it is time for the annual Tory pensioner cull.

The number of deaths due to cold weather has increased rapidly since the Conservative Party took office in 2010, reaching a high of 48,000 (if you can believe the source) between December 1 last year and the end of April, 2018.

This happened at a time when almost a million fewer pensioners qualified for cold weather payments than the previous year (1.7 million, compared with 2.6 million in 2016-17), due to a rise in the state pension age for women, Budget measures since 2011 and changes under the new-style state pension.

This year’s Budget has done nothing to help:

Conservatives think it’s funny.

Do you remember the tweet from the abortive Tory youth organisation Activate, remarking on the cold weather earlier this year?

It stated: “As the cold settles in and the national gas supply is running low we are hearing horrific stories…

“All across the country, Socialists are being forced to put their hands in their own pockets.”

The backlash put them firmly in their place, and may have contributed to the demise of Activate. My personal favourite response was, “I hope your arrogance keeps you warm tonight.”

As I stated in March, This is the Tory attack on the old.

Pensions cost the Department for Work and Pensions more than all its other expenditure combined. Tories hate paying them to people who have actually worked for a living and paid their taxes and National Insurance.

So they are raising the age at which people can claim their pension, and changing the conditions under which it is drawn.

It’s a short-sighted policy, because pensioners are now the Conservative Party’s main constituency.

It may be some small consolation to the families of those whose lives are endangered – or lost – because of these selfish politicians, if they are ousted from power for many years as a result.

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5 Comments

  1. nmac064 October 30, 2018 at 2:48 pm - Reply

    The only section of society that the Tories don’t hate is their wealthy donors.

  2. Grey Swans October 30, 2018 at 8:10 pm - Reply

    Please help Labour win the vital small town vote (mostly Grey Vote that begins from age 50) by joining Facebook group, to get the missing Labour state pension policies into Labour’s Manifesto to forever end pensioner poverty, increased 20 per cent a year since austerity began.

    Pensioners are not the reason the Tories get into government. It is the majority of all working class by income that are 75 per cent of us, that do not vote for any party in any election, that are the reason. Do not demonise the old by saying we ALL vote Tory, which is an inane comment as it is us older working class who voted Labour for over 100 years for the party to still be in existence.

    The cull of pensioners is due to the lowest state pension of any rich nation, which is 50 to 100 per cent of money in old age for millions,
    as well as the I Daniel Blakes and 1950s born ladies denied state pension / pension credit,
    as well as Winter Fuel Allowance cut and frozen in 2011, yet energy bills have risen around 70 per cent over last 10 years.

  3. joanna October 30, 2018 at 9:19 pm - Reply

    We won’t Mike, it will be covered up as usual!!

  4. Justin October 31, 2018 at 7:50 am - Reply

    you only have to look at the attitude to people with issues, vunerable adults or any adult/ person including families with children, homelessness, suicide or self harm ( a minister for suicide who is in denial about there policies causing suicide enough said), Polish my nails who somehow lies and then tells the world about wonderful rising job markets when bhs/ maplins even poundland/ toys r us have all gone into admin with rising warnings about others following suit and then we have the pretty red bus of lies with boris white the other load of lying dwarfs and I Agree with Lord Sugar when he did his house of lords Speech the other day where he said they should be looked at and jailed, in fact it is high time we had accountability amongst ministers that should cover there policies, take away there parliamentary privilege and if that means a few of them and there civil se4rvants answering a case under oath in a court of law and being found guilty, take em away in handcuffs and give them a luxury cell in hmp and no open prison either, time to get tough on lying mps and they should accept ownership and responsibility for there actions, if that happened we would not have likes of smith and co running around consistently putting people down, they be in the luxury that they deserve.

  5. trev October 31, 2018 at 11:23 am - Reply

    I’m not a Pensioner, I’m in my late 50s and on JSA, the only heating in my flat is an electric convector heater in the living room that works when it feels like it and doesn’t even properly warm the room let alone the rest of the flat. The gas fire was removed last December and the Gas disconnected due to a leak somewhere beneath the floor. There is no heating in the bedroom or kitchen and I don’t have a proper Bathroom just a toilet & wash basin in a walk-in cupboard in the bedroom and a shower in another cupboard in the kitchen. The flat is private rent, £80 p/w. Last Winter when the Gas was turned off I was left without any heating at all for 6 weeks. There was black mold on my bedroom wall.

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