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The Prosser Perspective.... a weekly column from Dover and Deal MP Gwyn Prosser

17 September 2007

I’ve been knocking a lot more doors than usual this week as the by-election campaigns for the County and District seats of Dover, Maxton, Elmsvale and Priory begin to hot up and as always the reaction to our canvassing teams varies from the wildly enthusiastic to the totally disinterested.

From my point of view I’ve been encouraged by the mostly warm welcomes we get at the doorstep and by the high level of support that Gordon Brown is receiving since he became Prime Minister - but this is by no means universal of course.

There are still some people who have swallowed the Tory line about pensions and convinced themselves that Gordon really did raid their funds and undermine their futures but the reality is very different.

After 17 years of annual Tory cuts in the basic pension, Chancellor Brown increased the average pensioner household income by £1500 a year above inflation. For the first time, 3 million pensioners were given a pension credit which on average amounted to £42 a week. Some 12 million receive the £200 winter fuel allowance. Nearly four million pensioners enjoy free TV licences and free passports and on top of all that are free eye tests, flu jabs and new compensation for war veterans.

Early in our first Parliament we cut VAT on fuel to 5 % and the poorest third of pensioners are more than £2,000 better off after inflation than they were in 1997.

It’s true that we removed dividend tax credits but that £5bn a year is minor compared with the £500 billion lost to pension funds by the stock market fall which the Conservatives lumbered us with. And it’s an arguable point that if Gordon had not used that money in the way he did, it would have been squandered by the big profit making companies boosting their profits even higher by indulging in contribution holidays. Far better, most would agree to invest it in health and education and that’s what happened of course.