The present government has brought to the fore the problem of welfare sustainability in the face of an aging population due to lower birth rates and longer life expectancy.

Needless to say, the opposition and the GWU do not even smell, let alone feel, that this is an issue that needs to be debated sooner rather than later, and the reason for this is that, on this blessed island of ours, the players elevate the notion of mundane bickering into an art.

The Galdes report was the first tangible output of significance. This does not necessarily mean that the report has any positive connotation. Although it analyses the time-bomb element of the issue in some depth, it fails miserably in its proposals for an equitable solution.

Basically, the report postulates that the retirement age should go up from the present 61 to 65! This bright idea obviously came from none other than the Association of Pensioners who today reap the benefits of those who toil.

It was so good of them to come up with the idea that the present workforce should continue working to a higher age so that the pensioners can continue to enjoy the benefits of their retirement!

The fundamental issue that needs to be addressed by Galdes`s successor is when will part, if not all, of the national insurance paid by today`s workers, be set aside for their own retirement and not given away to today`s pensioners. The present system of thinking of today and to hell with tomorrow is only a recipe for disaster. Fairness dictates that everyone should receive what one pays during one`s working life and not what others pay!

However, the greatest offence of it all is that while politicians from both sides agree that the national debate should continue, albeit to different degrees, they are entitled by act of parliament, to legislate that the problem does not concern them. For this is what they did when the elected representatives legislated that the present maximum pension applicable to workers - two-thirds of Lm6,700 - does not apply to them. Our representatives legislated that they should be considered as a higher breed of homo sapiens. Moreover, on their demise, their spouse would also benefit from a higher pension - again discriminating against the spouse of the ordinary worker.

This reminds me of none other than George Orwell`s Animal Farm - everyone is equal but some are more equal than others!