It is repeatedly pointed out – I have probably written it myself – that the triple lock on the state pension is ruinous. There is a genuine difficulty, though, political and moral, about getting rid of it. No one likes to lose a benefit they already possess. The abolition will annoy 99 per cent of its recipients, of whom there are 13.2 million. Besides, we pensioners have retained a traditional skill almost entirely lost to younger generations, called voting. We know how to go to a polling station and put a cross on a ballot paper. We therefore have the power to slay any party we think is making us poorer. The Tories invented the triple lock. If they abandoned it, they would be hit even worse than Nick Clegg was hit when he reversed Lib Dem policy against tuition fees as the price of coalition. That is the political argument. The moral argument is that pensioners feel they have earned their pension. This is not literally the case, because the National Insurance we have paid in our working lives is not, in reality, insurance. Our pensions come out of current funding. Morally, however, we have earned it by working, and it is not, even triple-locked, outstandingly good. I suggest opposition parties would be wise to hold off and let Labour trip up on the triple lock. By freezing tax thresholds, it will soon tax pensioners on their triple-lock gains because their income exceeds the £12,570 tax threshold. In his speech to his party conference on Tuesday, Andy Burnham tripped. He said the triple lock will be sacrificed to pay for his........

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