The President’s efforts at raising “social solidarity” awareness are obviously laudable, and particularly so to inculcate in the young the notion that, besides rights, they also have responsibilities to the society that is paying for their education and future success and wealth.

However, I suspect that the President’s Fun Run, and claims of a “sea of solidarity” (November 7), may not terribly impress many pensioners and, in particular, service pensioners who have not been paid the Malta social security pension they contributed to.

Some service pensioners have up to an annual €7,000 deducted from their social security pension. This is the reality of Malta’s “social solidarity” that is thrust down the throat of these pensioners.

There is no other social group in Malta that has part of its income stolen (not taxed) by the state – and for what reason? To pay, say, for non-means-tested tertiary education with non-means-tested stipends? This social scandal surely deserves a “Nobel Prize for social discrimination”.