Jonathan Hinder: Winter's Cruel Payment
I have already contacted my MP about something bothering me. Perhaps surprisingly, I do not write to Members of Parliament often. An occasional communication likely has greater impact than some weekly or daily missive. Like many others, my constituency is now represented by a Labour Member, its previous Conservative representative losing his seat. Jonathan Hinder is a former senior police officer and fought a good campaign. The former administration was tired and I welcomed a change of government.
I wrote to Mr Hinder expressing my concern about the cutting of the Winter Fuel Payment, a policy originating from a previous Labour government in 1997. Significantly, the Conservatives never killed it during their austerity drive of the 2010s, so important was it deemed to be. I wrote to Mr Hinder with an expression of understanding that the public finances were in a mess and that I understood some expenditures must be cut. Yet I asked whether it was fair that British pensioners living in balmy Benidorm should still receive it while those in Clitheroe and Pendle endure cold winters without it? Four regulars at Martin Top have already been to see me to say that they will be adversely affected by this cut.
Sadly, My Hinder, or his team, did not bother to read the email, and just copied and pasted a generic response. I asked for a proper reply, but nothing was received. I wrote again; but again, no reply. So I contacted the Secretary of the Clitheroe and Pendle Labour Party, and suggested that if Mr Hinder wished to retain his seat at the next election, he would do well to read communications properly and have the courtesy to reply to others. The man he replaced did not agree with many of the points I raised with him, but he always read my letters and responded with courtesy. Jonathan Hinder could learn a thing or two from him.
In five years’ time, in the run-up to the next election, our MPs will suddenly become very interested in our views, wonderfully courteous in their responses and exceedingly solicitous in their dealings with us. Until then, we can be safely ignored, and they can do what they want. The very poorest pensioners will still receive some help, as well as the wealthiest who are sunning themselves at their Spanish villas, but the majority of older folk in our area have a colder, poorer winter to look forward to.
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