SIR – So the Work and Pensions Secretary, Ian Duncan Smith, thinks it’s a good idea for everyone to be compelled to work to age 70.

I wonder if this gentleman will be working to this age? I very much doubt it. In the next few years no doubt he will have made his fortune and retired from the scene to a life of ease.

I, like many others, get sick and tired of hearing Government excuses as to why it implements certain policies. Our former Government made a monumental mess of the country with its lunatic policies.

Successive governments come out with pathetic excuses to cover their ineptitude. A favourite one is we don’t have enough medical staff, etc.

What is their answer? Why, to flood the country with people from abroad and turn our little island into a sardine can.

Another favourite old chestnut is ‘our young people won’t do these jobs’. Have these lot never heard of carrots and sticks? The carrot is always the better option, but the stick is a very effective stand-by.

It is time to get back to basic methods and bring back training for the young to meet a technological future and leave us old beggars alone.

Terry Tordoff, Calderstone Avenue, Buttershaw, Bradford