A case in point. Let us imagine Mrs A. who receives an additional pension of X pounds. Under the current tax ratings she is liable to be taxed and finds that her income has dropped by £324 over the year (meaning £27 pounds a month or £6 a week).

Let's rewind the clock to the years, months, days when the money was earned to pay into the said pension fund (and taxes all the while being deducted). Would it be naive to think that the government (that strange amorphous monster) had already exacted its more than twopennyworth?

And now to balance the books for a financial system that has - essentially - gone berserk these very same people who have lived and worked prudently are being squeezed again.

It fair makes your blood boil.

& this on the day of the local elections when - by all accounts - the Conservatives are being given a right hammering and the Lib Dems what they have deserved for selling out on their principles.

May Cameron & Clegg and all the bosses of our fine financial institutions sleep peacefully (with their bonuses) in their beds. For it escapes me how you can live with your consciences.