CASE OF DISCRIMINATION

PEOPLE who live in Britain probably suspect that we've been drinking too much Rioja when cold weather payments are demanded by British pensioners living on mainland Europe. I must admit it must sound almost comical. What next, warm weather allowances, I hear them say. I don't want to get into a war of words whether it is colder in Britain that it is here but what some people will find surprising is that the British government DOES pay cold weather payment to pensioners living in “warm paradises” like Majorca. Perhaps the British goverment would rather like to keep it quiet but this is case and it only came about when a group of brave pensioners took the British government to court and won. Under the present legislation only those pensioners who received cold weather payments in Britain, (the legislation was introduced in the late 1990s) can receive them here so in other-words it is only a small number, but cold weather payments are paid. What I would like to know is why the payments are not made to all because this is classic case of discrimination by the British government against its own citizens who maybe too old or too proud to demand a fair deal. What makes matters worse for me though, is that Chancellor Gordon Brown claimed that his budget last week would help pensioners. What he should have said is that it would help pensioners who don't venture any further than Dover. A Europe of equal rights providing that you are not a British pensioner on the European mainland, ofcourse.

Footnote
I was so pleased to see that so many dogs have been adopted by Bulletin readers from the Centro Canino. But don't forget though, that while one maybe adopted at leasted two more are being brought to the centre, so it vital that the Centro Canino gets a fair deal from the local authorities.