I don't believe there are many people in the UK who don't understand by now how damaged our economy is and how damaged the national pension pot is by government tax raids, poor returns on investments and people living longer.

It's a sad fact that people will have to stay in work longer to build up a pension pot big enough to retire in some degree of comfort.

But increasing the retirement age for men by a year so soon as the Conservatives are proposing would mean that tens of thousands of jobs would be "blocked" for a year by people who otherwise would be retiring.

Then add those lost job opportunities to those being blocked by women being forced to stay on at work from 60 to 65 to catch up with men.

It means there will be hundreds of thousands fewer jobs available for young people trying to get their first foot on the employment ladder.

All this is going to happen at a time when Britain is trying to scramble itself out of this recession.

I can't see how the economy is going to grow at a fast enough a rate to cope.
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