Margot James Joins Age Concern Camden's Third Over 50's Festival

Margot admires the work of the voluntary sector in supporting independence among the elderly.

I am a great admirer of Age Concern and it was a pleasure to see so many older people having such a good time at this festival, held during half term at Parliament Hill School.  Exhibitors included health, social services, pensions, home security advisors, the police and many community groups. 

Community groups like the Charlie Ratchford Centre on Belmont Street and the Castlehaven Community Centre support older people through a mix of self-financing, fundraising and grant income.  But most important at the heart of these groups is the voluntary effort of many local people.

Age Concern and their local partners no longer confine their activities to welfare and support although those functions remain central to their remit.  Groups that represent the elderly are campaigning organisations today and they certainly have a vast national and local agenda.

Locally there are many issues of concern to older residents.  Caversham Older People’s Network showed pictures of Camden’s streets that were full of obstacles, broken paving stones, illegal pavement parking, cyclists on the pavements and the fact that street furniture is mostly painted black which is no help to people with sight problems.

Labour has let our elderly down.  The facts are well known but bear repeating at every opportunity.  Frank Field, Labour MP for Birkenhead summed the pensions crisis up on the Today programme last month “The big issue that ought to be worrying the whole of the Government, because it’s worrying voters, is that when Labour came to office we had one of the strongest pension provisions in Europe and now probably we have some of the weakest.”

The Conservative party is planning a mailing to everyone of pensionable age before Christmas that will explain the effects of our pensions policy: the gradual ending of means-tested benefits, the restoration of savings incentives and the linking of the state pension to earnings.  We are the natural party for the elderly and we must get that message across loud and clear.