Letter: Letter: No trust in Tory pension plans

Sir: Which party has specific proposals to ban age discrimination? Most civilised countries such as France, Germany and the US have laws which ban discrimination on the grounds of age, and it would cost little to add age to the variety of categories against which it is illegal to discriminate in the UK.

For the last nine years, hundreds of thousands of people in their 50s and 60s have been the first to go in the downsizing that has been going on. These people are not included in the unemployment figures after 12 months, which is nice for the Government when comparing unemployment figures with other countries.

Having reached a time of life when they planned to be saving for the retirement years, these people find themselves spending such savings as they have. This will put enormous demands on the social security system in the next 10 to 15 years. A treasury of valuable experience has also been lost for ever to the economy.

Even the Lord Chancellor's office states that if you are more than 55 you are unlikely to be appointed a magistrate, and you cannot be one if you are over 60. A loss of mature experience to our legal system.

There are a lot of swingable votes up for grabs.

BRENDAN PARKE

Woodbridge

Suffolk