Ban bus passes for OAPs

Just look at them! Lazy, scrounging bastards the lot of them...

Well, anyway, that seems to be the general view of the Social Market Foundation who point out that giving bus passes to pensioners costs the poor old taxpayer about a billion a year. Not only that, but if we stopped giving these scroungers the winter fuel allowance and just let them freeze to death instead, then that would save another couple of billion - and of course would reduce the strain on the NHS of caring for old folk.

Now as I am a pensioner, I must declare an interest. However, I am not yet old enough to get the state pension. I was, however, looking forward to recieving my bus pass when I hit 60 because it will save me money on the park and ride. However, I am now told that I will have to wait until I am 62 for that.

In the meantime, I do qualify for free prescriptions for all the medicines that I don't take!

Now recently there has been a financial crisis. This has meant that loads of people have lost their jobs, for whom I am sorry. It also means that interest rate cuts have benefitted lots of people with mortgages. Good luck to them, too.

However, I retired early at my own expenses thus freeing up a job for a younger person. I also don't have a mortgage and live off the interest on my savings. I do notice that very little is ever said about retired people like me who have had their incomes cut dramatically because of lower rates.

I accept all this because it is in the national interest and in the long term - assuming I am still young enough to have a long term to look forward to - we will all benefit. So when I read about cunts like this trying to hit us even harder, then it frankly makes my piss boil.

The Social Market Foundation is, apparently, a 'think tank'. What I think is this : Who the fuck pays these people and how much can we save by shutting them down?