IF I had not put some money away from working 70 hours a week until the age of 70 years old I could not afford to heat my home and as an OAP would by now be long dead from our cold, damp winters.

What kind of democracy do I live in? It is clear I do not live in a democracy or such a fate would be debated and be therefore unthinkable.

Some 300,000 more British pensioners were in poverty in 2016-17 compared with 2012-13 and yet those elite people in power can find millions of pounds a year to keep the richest woman in the world on a throne from which beyond opening Parliament and giving a ten-minute speech once a year she does almost nothing.

Douglas Mills

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