I CANNOT possibly allow your correspondent 'A bitter Burma veteran' to get away with whingeing about the disgusting salary increases the members of parliament and the ministers, led by the Prime Minister himself, have awarded themselves. Is this the best you can do?
This is not the way you and the brave lads who faced the Japanese should act. Get off your knees. You and your mates stood up to the Japs, you owe it to those good comrades that did not come back, and those that did, but haven't got the strength now.
Of course the way this Government and previous governments since the Thatcher robbery have treated pensioners and disabled over 20 years is disgraceful, but unless you and 11 million-plus pensioners (25 per cent of the voting population) stand up and demand better treatment, you will have your noses rubbed in the mire, and rightly so. You deserve it!
The Lydney and District branch of the British Pensioners and Trade Union Action Association has been lobbying, campaigning locally, regionally and nationally with the National Pensioners Convention, which includes the Royal British Legion, calling on people like you to stand up for yourselves and others. Where have you been? Where are you now?
Why are you afraid to sign your letter? One of the reasons we fought the Nazis, the fascists and the Japanese was because we demanded the basic right to free speech (by the way, Editor, why do you publish unsigned letters, isn't publish and be damned part of the journalist creed?)
So Burma Star holder, as your army training will have taught you, collectively you can defeat a bloody, cruel enemy, singly you are not so powerful. Come and join with us, to obtain a decent living which we all fought for.
If we don't do it, no-one will do it for us. – Bill Punt, ex-secretary, ex-corporal, Darters Close, Lydney.
•Editor's note: There are many reasons people request us not to publish their names and addresses. As long as we know the author's name we are quite happy to print it. It is, as Bill says, a free country!