I REMEMBER Gordon Brown taking five billion a year out of private pensions and then removing the 10 per cent tax rate saying everyone would be better off because he reduced the next rate from 22 per cent to 20 per cent.

What he didn’t say was anyone under about £17,000 a year, which was all the lower paid, was actually worse off. When pointed out the very clever Mr Brown said he didn’t realise this.

Wow, and he was running the country’s budget, not so clever I think!

Now the wonderful Mr Clegg has frozen the tax free pay of pensioners, to as he says, let workers catch up. At the same time he gave millionaires 5 per cent back.

Now as my state pension rises my private pension - a very small amount - actually goes down. This is because there’s not as much tax free pay to carry over.

The first year he froze the tax free pay and I was actually 65p a month worse off on my private pension after getting several pounds rise of my gross pension.

He did this on the pretext that it was right for workers to get more, and I agree, they should. But to take if off pensioners who mostly are struggling, and give millionaires 5 per cent back, it’s obscene. I wonder if Mr Clegg will say he didn’t realise what the consequences would be.

I paid into my pension for about 40 years after being at work for 53 years. Who gives a bag of beans about us!

PETER JAMES, Poole