WE can't say we have not been warned in the past about the looming pensions crisis.

It has been masked in the past by the baby boom of the 50s and 60s and unsustainable rises in the stock market allowed successive governments to pretend the problem would go away.

Well it hasn't. And it hasn't been made any easier by the Chancellor in effect saying to those less well off that there's little point in saving now, because you'll only be denied benefits in the future if you have a little tucked away in the bank.

Barely a decade ago the country seemed to be awash with 50-odd-year-olds who'd been put out to grass (on a golf course perhaps) with generous pension settlements. And the public sector, being the public sector, seems to have found plenty of silly non-jobs to replace the golden generation of early retirees.

Today the bleak message to anyone under 60 seems to be you're going to have to work longer, pay more in taxes and be less well off.

Naturally, no party is going to have the guts to actually say that with a General Election just round the corner. But all politicians need to have a good sit down together, agree some common strategy and not play party politics with our futures.

It needs a brave and visionary approach from those who have the most generous pension provision in the county - our MPs.