Winning Arguments

When my generation hears the term "100 years ago", then we still think of the Victorians, because that was how the concept became meaningful to us. 

But today, 100 years ago was well into the reign of Queen Victoria's grandson, who was the present Queen's grandfather.

In continuing to evoke the War and post-War reconstruction as the reasons why we must look after the old, Jeremy Corbyn is delaying the inevitable.

At 69, Corbyn himself was born four years after the end of the Second World War, and thus well into the Attlee Government. Most people who fought in the War are now dead. 

Everyone who fought in the First World War is dead. If you were born on the last day of it, then you will turn 100 in a few weeks' time.

I remember Second World War veterans who had not even retired, still less died of old age. But that was 30 years ago, and more.

In making the case for a secure and dignified retirement, then we are going to have to make that case in itself, and not by reference to the winning either of the War or of the Peace.