The Conservatives in Blackpool: Pensioners picket Tories over VAT on fuel
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Your support makes all the difference.WHERE once socialist workers gave the Conservatives a rough ride at their annual conference, it was pensioners who were out in force in Blackpool yesterday, writes Chris Blackhurst.
More than 500 picketed the Winter Gardens conference centre, bringing traffic to a standstill and giving the police, trained in dealing with younger, more physically fit marchers, a security problem. The police stood by and watched as the demonstrators made their opposition to VAT on fuel known to representatives.
It was an impressive show from a group not normally given to street protest and with little money for coach fares to the North-west. Twelve busloads did come, from as far afield as Essex and the East Midlands. Most were women - 'our men are all dead', 75-year-old Stella Tripp, from Hull, said.
The feelings of Anne Bailey, 82, also from Humberside, were typical and should set alarm bells ringing in Downing Street. If the tax goes through as planned, a bed-rock of Tory support may disappear. 'I economise already, so how can I afford it?' she asked.
One of the organisers of the Pensioners' Rights Campaign, as the protesters call themselves, is Bertha Wright, 69, from Workington, Cumbria. Even an offer from the Government to sweeten the VAT blow with a benefits package for the needy, will not be enough. A rise in state pensions is what they want. 'We don't want bribes,' Ms Wright said. 'Now, if we all had decent pensions that would be different.'
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