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Re: Time to stump up Date: 11 November 2003 Sir - While Prime Minister John Howard is opening the Australian War Memorial on Armistice Day, Tony Blair and Andrew Smith, the Secretary of State for Pensions, should reflect on this celebration of the generosity, willingness and sacrifice by countless thousands of young Australian servicemen during Britain's desperate and dark days last century. They should reflect because they both now turn their respective backs on thousands of older British migrants who, fired by the deeds and courage of so many young Aussies, Canadians and South Africans, migrated to settle in those now great nations. They should reflect because they now refuse to provide those migrants with the state pension for which each contributed in the part of their lives they worked in Britain. Many have departed overseas after a full working life in Britain, but still, if living in the major Commonwealth countries, they find their British state pension frozen upon departure - unlike those who leave for Germany, Italy and Spain (they weren't on our side) and about 37 other countries. By this action Mr Blair represents not only perfidious but also parsimonious Albion. It is now time to stump up.
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