There are already 11million pensioners and this number grows by the year. By default, in an uninspiring contest the politicians appeal to the elderly. As with most stereotypes, the ideas of grey power and the grey voting bloc are misleading. It is wrong, as well as patronising, to view the elderly as a common fraternity who live, think, act and vote the same. In fact the old are probably more heterogeneous than any other age group.
Age is probably the least significant 'group' indicator of how people vote.
Gender, colour, income and wealth are all much more important. The current orientation to the pensioner voter ignores all this. Look at the contemptuous assumption that the choice between slightly different tax and benefits packages will determine how older people will vote. The Tories promise rises in tax allowances and four pounds more on the state pension for over-75s, while Labour plans a complicated extension of means testing, with a 100 minimum income guarantee by 2003 and a pension credit for those with savings income. What gives the courting of the grey vote its repulsive character is not just that, as Age Concern notes, 'No party has pledged to increase the basic state pension to an adequate level'.