Lm1.10 increase per week may not seem so much. It only works out to Lm57.20 a year. For many, it represents the amount spent for medicine for one month. With the new budget it works out to having one free month of medicine supplies a year.

Indeed your increase of Lm1.10 is less than the workers’ increase of Lm1.75 per week, but then you have less expenses per week than a worker has. You do not have to drive to work, pay for fuel, parking and other similar expenses which by anyone’s calculation would probably work out to somewhat more than 65c a week. So, you see, you are definitely not second-class citizens. A budget is designed to treat citizens, irrespective of their political leanings, equally. One earns more, one pays more.

Reaching the ripe old age of 75 does not create any barrier to access of medicine. You may be offered substitutes for patent medicines but their characteristics are generally the same. Much richer countries such as Canada have excluded many medicines and medical services from the free access system under the Health Insurance. In Ontario, one pays the first $100 before the rest is free. Does that mean that seniors (pensioners) in Canada are second-class citizens? In Malta one finds an excellent health system, ironically the envy of many other countries save four, and which will be further enhanced by the new Mater Dei hospital soon to be operational.

Dear pensioners, if 15 years ago your pension was adequate, why then 10 years ago, under 22 months of Labour administration were your pensions not improved? After all, 15 years ago takes us back to a Nationalist government and Labour, which forever boasts that it can do better, didn’t.

And, dear pensioners, the cost of living has gone up tremendously not just in Malta, but in every country around the world. The only countries where the cost of living remained the same are countries whose economies are stagnant not by choice but by operation of their governments which make sure that there are empty shelves and nothing to buy. If there is nothing to buy, one cannot pressure the economy and create inflation which drives the cost of living up. Does that ring a bell, or is Valerie Borg (TMID, 28 October) too young to remember?

Dear pensioners, you are in good hands and there is no reason to try to fix something which isn’t broken! No need to worry about an election any time soon, but when the day comes, you will have enough common sense to make the right decision and not vote for a party whose leader has faulty economics and who changes his mind whenever it suits him. Vote for those who fulfil their promises and who put the good of the country far ahead of the good of the party.

Joe Martinelli

London, Ontario

Canada