The bottom of the seasonal revelry barrel holds no good cheer for old age pensioners.

It will not have gone unnoticed by the near 10 million recipients of the state pension that it is to rise by only £1.95 above the New Labour all-time low increase of 75p per week two years ago.

Neither is there any Christmas cheer or new year properity hopes for the millions of Equitable Life pension fund holders and other similar policy holders who depend on their 'top-up' investments to provide them with a decent income in re-tirement.

New Labour, in a recent Commons report, blamed the failure of the private pension sector on the fact that 'people are living longer'.

However, the real fact is that Labour's pensions policy is dying early - there being no fewer than half a dozen private pension schemes that have crashed since the Blair government took office in 1997.

No real solutions have been created.

On the contrary, as soon as one pensions schedule has failed another has been put in its place only to create a volatility of motion which distorts the true value of capital investments - as can be seen by the 'gaps' and enormity of the depreciation of pension stocks since 1997.

And the debt-ridden colateral has taken another body blow with the appointment of a 'Government pro-active pensions regu-lator' who is to work closely with Chancellor Gordon Brown on measures to tax even further reserve assets propping up the pension funds.

The Blair Govern-ment's constipated pensions fiasco is only matched by its current indigestible draft transport portfolio designed, we are told, to 'relieve' congestion across our modern road network.

Richard Grave, Presidents, Lancaster & More-cambe TUC