Can you smell it? The stink of hypocrisy when Theresa May expresses her disappointment at the BBC announcement not to provide funding for free TV licences to the majority of pensioners over the age of 75.

It was her government that transferred this unwanted burden on to the BBC. The resultant inquiry was passed into the gilded safe hands of Clementi and his cohort, with the inevitable result that the necessary funding has been butchered.

In these times of ongoing austerity there appears to be within Parliament and an element of the media under the tag of inter-generational fairness an enthusiasm to attack pensioners’ rights.

Ironic, then, that pensioners are the group that willingly supports their extended family in so many ways, whilst maybe at the same time the most exposed to the crumbling of under-funded public services.

I incite my fellow pensioners angered at this decision to share their feelings with their elected representatives, additionally requesting an explanation for the ongoing attacks on pensioners’ rights.

Chris O’Neill

Chairman

Hampshire Unison Retired Members Section