Anyone trying to sweep the cost of living problem under the carpet is deceiving the public, GWU general secretary Tony Zarb told a seminar on the elderly organised by the Reggie Miller Foundation.

The elderly sector of the population, he said, had the cost of living as their main problem, especially relating to medicines. In the coming year they would have a serious challenge, in having to vote for the political party to lead them. The elderly were now going to get the cost of living increase in full, something which, Mr Zarb said, the GWU had been arguing for over a long time.

The union’s national council is at present discussing the memorandum to be sent to the political parties before the general election. In it the union would be asking the parties not to make promises which they could not keep. Parties which did not honour their pledges should not be trusted with leading the country, he said.