As I write this MPs have just voted to allow the Labour government to withdraw the winter fuel allowance from pensioners.

I’m going to have write that again: As I write this MPs have just voted to allow the Labour government to withdraw the winter fuel allowance from pensioners.

A Labour government? A Labour government? A Labour government is withdrawing the winter fuel allowance for pensioners?

I must admit that was not on my Labour Bingo card when the new government was voted in, in July.

And I imagine there are a lot of Labour MPs stunned that one of their first major votes in Parliament is to whether to deprive some pensioners of the means to keep themselves warm this winter.

In all, 53 Labour MPs abstained with only one voting against. Unfortunately none of them were from Cornwall.

However even for those who abstained that was a pretty poor show. Now I understand that there are a lot of pensioners who are pretty well off and don’t need it, so a blanket payment is a bit unreasonable but equally there are many who see it as a lifeline each winter.

While those on benefits will still get it, there are a lot of pensioners who aren’t on benefits that still struggle to survive. Indeed, a recent report found that some will actually die.

To pick on one of the most vulnerable groups of people in our society when there are multi-millionaires ripping the taxpayer off by supplying useless PPP during the pandemic, tax avoidance schemes, the bloody HS2 – which is still costing us billions despite being bloody useless – is obscene to say the least.