The Solidarity between the generations.

I think any comment on this title must start with "finances". Edward Whitehouse, a pensions expert at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, says the future will be much tougher than the past. We have had a relative benign period for a couple of decades. The phrase "should we senior citizens  pay or should our children pay?

Gordon Brown our prime minister forecast the UK.s net public debt would stabilise at below the very low level of 33 per cent of national income .This will not happen if public spending and by this I mean National Pension rises exceed the national income. It has been said that our children will have to pay higher taxes to meet a cost of living increase given, no matter how small a rise to our pension system.

The above shows that finances play a big part in maintaining the Solidarity between generations. It is almost impossible to achieve a closure of this gap. The young have to face redundancy, cut in hours of work, resulting in cut of income. However, I also must point out, that my husband and I have for four decades paid into the national pension fund, and reserve a right to draw from it. 

No wonder the generation gap widens, as our young see us getting free bus journeys, a substantial sum at New Year for heating (£250) bills. It must be hard for the young to understand this drain on resources.

Personally, I find manners have almost gone. No more getting up to give an elderly lady a seat on a bus, or keeping doors open to help. This also applies to a young mother struggling with a babe in a pram. So it does have faults on both sides of the coin.

There is a deficit of principles, a deficit in all monetary systems, who have failed miserably to think of that "rainy day". That rainy day is with us, because of stupidity in the last two decades.

Good will begins at home, and a need for tolerance, not only with the young, but, also with us elderly.

Arline Easson

Vicepresidenta U.K.