‘…I do all my shopping here nowadays and the great thing about a Farmers Market is that everything’s fresh this cheese was only made this morning in this dairy just up the road you wouldn’t get that in a supermarket you ought to try the sage and coriander sausages they’re something special everything’s in season which means if you buy a bag of mixed onions it’ll cost you £2 whereas in Tesco you could be paying twice that and you’re not being charged for packaging and stacking shelves of course you have to eat it quickly in case it goes off you ought to try the rhubarb and mango chutney it’s wonderful with the organic turkey quiche…’ 


The European Court of Human Rights is expected to hand down its final decision on the UK’s long-standing frozen pension policy very soon. As the Old Un has previously reported, a handful of pensioners are bringing the case in the hope that the policy (which affects around half a million British ex-pats, freezing their pensions so that over time they decline in value) will be deemed discriminatory and in breach of the Human Rights Act.

The case of 83-year-old Derrick Prance is typical. He contributed to the State Retirement Pension for 49 years. He and his employers also contributed to the Graduated Retirement Benefit and the State Earnings Related Pension for 32 years. Yet in line with the frozen pensions policy, Derrick and his wife Ivy have not received a pension increase since they left the UK in 1997 to join family in Australia. The basic weekly state pension was then £62.45. The couple left the UK with the expectation that the Labour Party would honour its 1997 pre-election undertaking to rescind the policy when it gained office. The policy was not, however, rescinded.

Derrick got an even greater shock when he discovered that his State Earnings Related Pension was also affected. He points out that neither he nor his employers were ever warned that his SERP pension would not be indexed were he to retire to Australia. A few years ago, after an epic correspondence, the Department of Work and Pensions confirmed that he had not received such a warning. With this evidence in hand he set about trying to mount a claim of maladministration against the authorities. Yet, he says, for the past couple of years he has been constantly ‘passed from pillar to post’ and some officials became so irritated by his persistence that they wrote to advise him that they were discontinuing the correspondence.

Derrick is a WWII veteran.  He joined the Home Guard when he was seventeen and helped to man anti-aircraft guns in East London before joining the army. He saw active service in France and Germany and ended the war witnessing the liberation of Belsen. He later worked as a salesman and paid taxes until he was seventy.

Let’s hope his long fight will soon have a happy ending and that the European Court of Human Rights recommends that the UK rescinds its frozen pensions policy.


We are delighted to hear that councils are taking the credit crunch seriously: Salford City Council has announced plans to save £30,000 by suspending provision of drinks and biscuits. No more custard creams at local committee meetings – but hot drinks will be available for councillors and at meetings with visitors. One Oldie reader calculates that £30,000 would buy around 40,000 packets. This equates to over 1,000 biscuits per working day. How will they cope without them?