Let me deal with that point first: We have the melancholy experience of what happened after the First World War and the way in which pensions tribunals treated cases in those years when we were having a Genuine Economic Crisis and people were disposed to try to turn people off pension and so reduce taxation.

Sometimes when I listen to debates in the House - on a number of subjects - I wonder whether the great British public are, frankly, astounded at the lack of acceptance of the Genuine Economic Crisis facing this nation.