Hansard

It is a long while since I have heard so much rubbish spoken in this place. For decades, I have watched in sheer disbelief as successive Governments of various political persuasions have proposed and adopted policies relating to senior citizens' pensions, all resulting in the continuation of pensioner poverty. It has become politically correct and acceptable to propose policies that are guaranteed to continue and even exacerbate the impoverishment of senior citizens, many of whom are vulnerable and frail and, quite frankly, have been shamefully let down by every governing party since the war.

Now, lo and behold, the SNP has woken up to the fact that there are a number of disillusioned grey voters out there and that, if it does not move to rectify the situation, it could cause countless senior citizens to switch off and turn away from the SNP. It is laudable that the SNP has noted that there is a problem; other parties do not even want us to talk about the problem.

I say to Gordon Brown—or Andrew Smith—that the flagship policy of pension credits has failed miserably. Due to its means testing, there has been a pathetic uptake of only 53 per cent, not the figure quoted earlier. Fifty-three per cent might have been enough to see George Bush re-elected, but I say to Gordon Brown, "Don't hold your breath."

To be impartial and fair, the same Gordon Brown has done a splendid job in bringing virtually full employment back to the UK. Nevertheless, the history books will show that he has been an abject failure with regard to pensioners' conditions. Means testing is his flagship policy, and not only has it failed miserably, but it costs a fortune to implement. Forty-seven per cent of my generation refuse to jump through hoops for a sad pittance. They proudly refuse to parade their poverty and virtually beg for the just pension that should be theirs by right.

The SNP deserves credit for proposing the abolition of means testing. However, I would advise it to get back to the drawing board because, according to the media—the figure has not been quoted here today—its target is a pension for all, initially, of £106 a week, or £5,532 per annum, without means testing. That is a benefit. The guaranteed minimum wage is £4.85 an hour, which equates to £194 a week, or £10,088 per annum. Why should a pensioner be expected to live on roughly half the guaranteed minimum wage? Age Concern commissioned a university study, which concluded that £160 a week was the minimum amount required to allow a pensioner simply to make ends meet. That princely sum would not allow them to run a car, go on holiday, smoke, drink, or have a wee flutter at the bingo or on the horses. That is the minimum amount that would allow them simply to make ends meet on a weekly basis. That is why the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party demands £160, index linked to earnings—or to the cost of living, whichever is the greater—to give all our senior citizens back their dignity. It is well within the capability of the fourth richest economy in the world to pay senior citizens £8,320 per annum.

Where will the money come from? The answer is easy: bring back our troops from Iraq, scrap Trident and tell Tony Blair that the cold war is over, or set aside a larger percentage of our gross domestic product. Currently, the percentage stands at 5.5 per cent, which is the second lowest of fifteen European countries. Austria allocates 14.5 per cent, Greece 12.6 per cent—this is beginning to sound like the Eurovision song contest—Germany 11.8 per cent and Sweden 9 per cent. Sadly, Gordon Brown boasts that his long-term plan is to reduce our share of GDP from 5.5 per cent to 4.4 per cent, while every other country will greatly increase its share. Other countries are planning ahead—they realise that a demographic time bomb is ticking—but Gordon Brown simply ignores the problem and hopes that it will go away.

Gordon Brown refuses to increase income tax for the mega-rich by pegging the top rate at 40 per cent, while idly watching as 2,500 senior citizens in Scotland die winter-related deaths. Our Executive has a praiseworthy free central heating scheme for the elderly, but, sadly, Gordon Brown has negated that good scheme by ensuring that all too many pensioners simply cannot afford to switch their heating on. He should get real, for goodness' sake. Members should not talk about the £200 winter allowance, by the way, which equates to just £4 per week on top of a miserable pension of about £70.

Pensioners in Shotts high-security prison enjoy facilities that many senior citizens would dearly love to have. The criminals enjoy three square meals per day, free central heating, double glazing, en suite toilet facilities, games rooms, libraries, free televisions and so on at a cost of £30,000 per annum each. Senior citizens, the vast majority of whom have never committed any crime, receive a free television licence when they reach 75 years. If they qualify for pension credit, they receive £5,460 per annum. We are the good guys and the criminals are the bad guys. Pensioners who are taken into residential care, which often falls short of the Shotts standard, might have their home sold to pay the cost of keeping them in residential care. It is not so for the murderer or rapist in Shotts high-security rest home. This is an ill-divided world.

What on earth has happened to the suffragette spirit among our opposite sex? In 1909, Lloyd George—a good Liberal—instigated the first ever old-age pension scheme. The average working wage was just over 12 shillings per week. On reaching 70, a pension of 5 shillings per week was paid to both men and women. In the 21st century, we find ourselves with men getting 100 per cent, while a spouse receives a mere 50 per cent. Thankfully, Nicola Sturgeon addressed that issue. It is high time that the rest of the ladies who rightly complain about the inferior rates that women are paid for the same work in the workplace started suffragetting once more and put an end to this inequality nonsense. The SSCUP demands £160 per week for both men and women—there are no second-class members of our party. Can any other party make the same boast?

When people reach 80, their pension rises by a massive 25p per week. That is not even enough to buy a first-class stamp to write and complain about the insult, yet these are the people who were on the beachheads on D day and who landed at Arnhem and so on—they are the heroes. Ministers will stand there in a week's time with crocodile tears running down their faces when, in far too many instances, they have pensioners in total poverty.

Politicians seem to be completely unaware of the massive problem that faces the elderly in our country. I say to politicians: neglect the elderly at your peril. They have had as much as they are prepared to take from politicians and they are starting to fight back. Uncaring political parties continue to ignore our plight at their peril; the elderly can and will strike back by putting their cross elsewhere in future. Grey power will triumph in adversity—just watch this space.

I move amendment S2M-1940.2, to insert at end:

"and restore the link, broken in 1982, between pensions and average national earnings."