John Hutton has today been promoting the government’s new pensions package, a follow-up to Lord Turner’s report earlier this year, which will increase the state pension age from 65 to 68.

The retirment age was set at a time when life expectancies were much lower than they are now. The idea that once you hit 65 you’ve “done your bit”, “paid your stamp” and are entitled to thirty years of leisure at the state’s expense is a nonsense. The system simply wasn’t designed to cope with today’s longevity, and just as we expect young people to work if they can, it’s reasonable to expect 65-year-olds to stay at work for a few more years if they’re still spritely. The alternative is for a generation whch has spent decades keeping taxes relatively low to then force high taxes on their children in order to give themselves a comfortable retirement – although in practice, because of the long lead time for this change, the baby boomers will benefit from the current state pension age anyway.

So John Hutton is entitled to a quote:

“As unpopular as it may be to talk about working longer – the simple fact is that if we aren’t prepared to increase the state pension age, we will simply pass an ever greater and frankly unsustainable burden on to our children and grandchildren.”

I’m watching footage of Bill Clinton addressing the Labour Party Conference in Manchester, praising the record of Gordon Brown and Tony Blair, who is watching from the stage.

There was a time, I suspect, when I would have thought better of Labour just for having President Clinton at their conference. But today I just find myself thinking less of him for being there.

theguardian announces:

Tories open nine-point lead as Labour drops to 19-year low

Wow. The Tories went up a lot?

Actually, no. The Conservatives have gained 1%, Labour have dropped 4% and the LibDems have gone up 5%. How this squares with the article saying

The poll shows former Labour voters switching to the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in almost equal numbers

is not quite clear to me. Anyway, here’s an alternative headline for you:

LibDem support increases 30%

The same poll, incidentally, found that 72% of people think that

government policies such as backing for action in Iraq and Afghanistan have made this country more of a target for terrorists

while only 20% believe the Government tells the truth on terror.

A report in theguardian reveals that a two-day follow-up to yesterday’s local government strike is no-longer-secretly planned for May 3rd and May 4th. The latter is the day of local elections in England, which are administered by local government.

If the unions think emphasising the issue on local election day is a good way to put pressure on Labour, then they’re probably right, but it would be a sensible move for them to guarantee that the elections won’t be disrupted. Labour has every interest in delaying what is likely to be an embarrassing plebicite – undermining local democracy would only play into their hands. The unions should come clean about whether there is a strike planned for May 4th and reassure voters that the elections will be able to go ahead as normal.