THE GOOD DIE YOUNG
Sue Cooper (Your View 25.5.05) is guilty of gross over-reaction. She is sickened that the government is paying benefits to a family with 3 unmarried teenage mothers. While the morality of the family may be questioned, it is certainly not Tony Blair's fault the girls became pregnant, and any government of any political shade would pay those same benefits rather than have them begging in the street.
She also accuses the Labour governmet of discriminating against the middle classes because Adair Turner suggested the possibility of professional people retiring later than working class. This was merely an unofficial idea put forward by an independant man who has been charged with coming up with new suggestions for pensions. It is not, and probably never will be government policy, or even part of his final recommendation. It is however, demographically true that professional people live longer on average than the working classes for varied reasons. The figures can be verified in 'Social Trends' published by HMSO.
