It looks as if Labour has finally overcome the “problem” of funding pensions. By raising the age of retirement to 70, Labour hopes that we will all drop dead before we are able to draw them. The treasury has commissioned reports from several right wing “pensions experts” who, surprise surprise, argued for an increase in the age of retirement. As one of them shamelessly put it, “the role of the state is to alleviate poverty and not to fund a long and active retirement with a good standard of living”.

Research has shown that one in five people and nearly one in three men will die before they retire, if the pensions age is raised. Just think of the savings! Better still, pushing up the retirement age will hit the poor disproportionately. In Britain's more deprived areas, the death rate at 70 is almost half of men and more than a third of the population as a whole. The fact that it will hit the prols hardest will prove a big selling point to Labours natural constituency, the average Daily Mail reader.