I
could understand it if a sound argument was being made. But it isn’t. It’s
dressed up to appeal to be a vote-catcher in UK at the cost of the soft
targets, pensioners abroad; politics of envy, judging by some comments, albeit
misguided.
The online article is illustrated with a stock photo of a pensioner couple playing chess in the sun and another photo shows a relatively crowded beach with sunbathers. Not exactly winter images, but to be expected from this biased quarter, the Daily Mail. Right now, we walk around with coats and boots on, but that kind of photo would spoil the subliminal image the Mail wishes to purvey!
And
of course the sensationalist figures don’t tell it as it is, maybe because it
isn’t simple, or maybe because those figures seem better for the argument: the
payment is £100 per person, not £200 as implied; or £200 for a single person if
living alone, or £200 per couple. (Yes, it increases with age up to 80, and the
maximum claimable is £300). These are the UK government’s rules, not ours; a UK
government whose incumbents are paid for by the taxpayer, among whom are
thousands of aggrieved ex-pat British pensioners.
There
are a lot of reader comments on the Mail online article. A certain number
pander to the myth that if you’ve emigrated abroad, you must be rich; others
don’t seem to realise that we ex-pats have paid our taxes and many still
continue to do so, but see no return for our investment in our country.
And
of course the writer, James Chapman, Political Editor, cites the same old
statistics -
“But in December and January
temperatures in Spain can reach 17C (63F). There are almost 28,625 recipients
in France, many of them in the south where temperatures in winter are often a
comfortable 13C (57F)’ – figures which I refuted in my earlier blog here
The DM article states that ‘Mr Duncan
Smith said countries where the average annual temperature is higher than the
warmest region in the UK – the South West at 5.6C – will be affected.’ This is
nonsense – ‘average annual temperature’? What months are involved in this
temperature test, or is it the whole year? January and February? How many years is the average taken
over? If UK is blessed with five years of warm winters, will the winter fuel
allowance be stopped for UK residents since the average will be higher than
5.6C?
The sun is shining outside while I’m
sitting typing this, at 4pm on 2 February, and the gas fire is on, because it’s
cold. It will get colder. Tonight it’s expected to be 5.0C. Averages can mean
whatever the user of the statistics wants them to mean (see the report above).
Cold kills old people – usually around about 2am, when the body is at its most
vulnerable. It has little to do with how much sunshine occurs in the afternoon.
Mr Duncan Smith is quoted as saying, ‘The
winter fuel payment is intended to help British pensioners with heating costs.’
My wife and I, like thousands of other ex-pats, are British pensioners – and we’re
also British taxpayers. Oh, thanks for your consideration, Mr Duncan Smith!
He adds, ‘From winter 2015/16, we are
changing the rules so that it no longer goes to people in European countries
with an average winter temperature high than the warmest part of the UK.’
Interesting, they’re changing the rules – and simultaneously attempting to
block attempts by ex-pats to vote in UK elections (since, after all, we pay
their wages via our taxes).
Change the rules, indeed! Does that go for MPs’ claims on expenses, too? You know, those MPs with generous pensions who don’t have to concern themselves about heating their home (any one or three of them).
Disraeli wrote, ‘The practice of
politics in the East may be defined by one word – dissimulation.’ Well, it’s
not only in the East any longer, it’s in Westminster. And it stinks.
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