Pensioners know it's poll time in Britain

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, FEB. 12. To turn Robert Browning on his head: ``Oh, to be alive this spring in Britain is fun, but to be old and a pensioner is very heaven.''

Indeed. With elections round the corner Britain's nearly eight million ``grey'' voters - pensioned off and abandoned in council houses - are being heavily wooed by politicians, even by those who once thought there was no life beyond the young and upwardly mobile suburban elite. Traditionally, pensioners have voted for Labour but the New Labour with its quest for wider appeal is not the good old working class party they used to know once upon a time, and last autumn they put it on notice that either the party listened to their demand for higher pension or prepare to face the music. They even marched down to Westminster and held a little rally denouncing the ``arrogance'' of New Labour and threatening to abandon it in elections.

The threat worked and within weeks the Chancellor, Mr. Gordon Brown announced a handsome raise in pension, and since then pensioners find an honourable mention in every ministerial pronouncement. The Tories who, under Ms. Margaret Thatcher, hated everything that reminded them of the welfare State are so starved of supporters these days that even pensioners would do and Mr. William Hague is seen putting his best smile when talking to them - telling them that Labour has been shortchanging them and their future (whatever is left of it) lies with the Tories. At one point, he even thought he knew what pensioners exactly wanted: they didn't want free radio/T.V. licence or free heating; they wanted cold cash, he said and announced that if they voted his party to power it would be cash all the way.

But within weeks, he got the message that he had got it all wrong. Pensioners wanted to retain the benefits of free broadcast licence and free heating, though additional dosh was always welcome. So, last weekend Mr. Hague did a U-turn, put on his best smile and said: of course, you will continue to get the freebies but we will give you something else too: the choice to decide whether you want benefits in kind or cash or a mix of two! How heavenly.

Another group that the Tories are wooing consists of what are known as ``pebbledash people''. These are successful professionals who live in semi-detached houses with ``pebbledash'' fronts - a variation on exposed bricks. The ``pebbledash'' people are not politically committed and tend to vote for a party which they think can deliver for them.

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