WE have just passed the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two - on July 10 - and it is also 25 years since 1980, when the former Tory government under initially Margaret Thatcher cut the State pensions link to national average earnings.

I'm 82, and, like the rest of my generation, have funded for a decent State pension all our working lives. In my case I was a bank clerk for 47 years, and millions of my generation have been struggling since the 1980s to live on a greatly-reduced State pension income.

Largely, we will not complain because we have been through much harder times, and this is no different, even though we should not be struggling today in a highly self-centred nation.

Link-Age, which I have joined, is a breath of fresh air - a non-party political pensions pressure group based in Devon and Surrey, of people who are 20 and 30 years younger than I am. Link-Age founder Michael Thompson is just 57, a mere boy to me, but what knowledge and understanding he has on all issues affecting my generation.

I have been so impressed that I will leave no stone unturned in an effort to promote his group's manifesto which speaks up on all issues affecting all Britain's pensioners.

Link-Age has a manifesto campaign calling for, among other issues, State pensions in the UK to be up-rated to European levels, which are three to four times higher than our miserly £82 a week. It is also calling for the abolition of the council tax, the means test, and the taxing of pensioners on income and savings.

Michael Thompson has been campaigning for pensioners for 16 years, and this organisation is the consequence of those years and is the only pensions pressure group in the UK calling for parity with the Europeans.

Some examples of European State pension levels are as follows: French single pensioners receive £205.50 per week; German single pensioners receive £267.15 per week; Italian single pensioners receive £341.13 per week.

Their manifesto gives people a chance to stand and be counted to their elected constituent MPs direct in the House of Commons. All people have to do to receive a free copy of the manifesto is to ring Michael on 01803-857020 after 6.30pm, including Sundays. Your call will not take longer than three minutes, and if on a BT line your call will automatically cost 5p for 59 minutes. This is not a scam for BT to make even more profit; this is a genuine manifesto campaign from those in the relative younger generations trying to help us in our senior years, and it deserves to be supported.

Alex Alexander

Link-Age Supporter

Lordsgrove Close

Tadworth Farm

Tadworth