Paul Braithwaite letter to Daily Telegraph

Letters to the Editor:

I am struck by Chancellor Brown's lamentable disingenuousness on the subject of pensions, on the Today programme on Monday (Sept 27). John Humphreys raised the subject to centre stage and suggested that Brown has presided over the unravelling of a pensions provision the envy of Europe. He took Brown to task and he stuck to his guns admirably.

I was amazed to hear, I think for the first time ever, Brown utter the word 'Equitable' (Life) and make the astonishing claim that: "We have been dealing with the problem of Equitable as well. We have been trying to deal with it as best we can." The only visible measure of his government has been a callous disregard for dire losses by more than a million prudent savers (not related to stockmarkets) by the passive device of commissioning an endless series of reports, so as to repeatedly knock the issue into deep field. And when the conclusions of Lord Penrose were embarrassing, they were simply distorted in presentation to Parliament to the Treasury's script. The newly announced second study of Equitable by the Parliamentary Ombudsman was opposed fiercely by both the Treasury and the FSA. I assume, therefore, that Brown's: "as best we can" is a euphemism for: at no cost to the government, however negligent the regulators".

Brown's boasting of the new scheme for policyholders' protection for employees in failed companies was similarly shabbily misleading. The shortfall in ASW et al amounts, as it does in Equitable Life, to billions. All that Brown has actually offered is a paltry £20m pa and a new scheme that most commentators believe is unworkable, hopelessly under-funded and which won't come into force for years.

Brown has presided over the destruction of many millions of working peoples' pensions and made self-provision counter-productive for the majority, whilst hugely expanding expensive and universally loathed means-tested benefits. The Chancellor's clever, evasive weasel words are central to an understanding of why there's been a breakdown in trust. How much better it would have been for all, had he put up his hand, admitted these were problems which occurred on his watch and addressed them honestly? The words 'Equitable Life' and 'ASW' damn "Culpability Brown" by his silence and inaction.

Paul Braithwaite