The Evening Standard’s Business Editor, Anthony Hilton, has waded into the debate on pensions and retirement with a strong call for the state pension age to be raised and for all of us to work longer.
What older people resisting any change need to realise is that if the burden on the young becomes too great, they will ultimately refuse to pay. Then the system will break down and society will fracture.
Agree with him or not, one thing he says is irrefutable.
This has forced Government to confront the issue . . . It is one of the most fundamental challenges facing our society. As such it deserves to be debated intelligently, not on the level of petty Parliamentary point-scoring. If this decision can be got right now, it will avoid a great deal of pain and bitterness in decades to come.