LITTLE JOHNNY DELIVERS PAPERS SO GRANNY CAN VISIT THE SEYCHELLES

Pension? Start saving from birth (Gaby Hinsleff and Amelia Hill, The Observer, November 27th, 2005)

When Bismarck introduced the first- ever state pension in 1889, the retirement age was set at 65. However, at that time, the average life expectancy was only 49, so conveniently few people survived to collect it. And even when Lloyd George introduced pensions to Britain in 1908, working-class Britons were routinely living only a year or two beyond retirement.

It may feel like part of the inextricable deal between citizen and state, but the idea of a lengthy, relaxed retirement - going on a decades-long cruise or getting to know the grandchildren - is a relatively modern phenomenon: as Will Hutton argued last week, in 1951 the average person spent less than a fifth of their lives in retirement, compared with nearly a third now.

None the less, many workers see retiring on the dot of 65 as a fair reward for a life's hard graft. 'I've been a good employee: reliable, hard-working and honest. I could count the number of dodgy sick days I've taken in 48 years on the fingers of one hand, but part of the reason why I was able to make myself do it was because I always had my eye on my 65th year,' says Roger Pepler, a 64-year-old warehouse worker from Manchester. 'When I wake that morning, I can begin the life I've been dreaming of for years.'

He worries about not having enough savings, but says he will manage: 'The key thing now is that I am about to have time to spend with my family. No one is going to take that away from me.'

He is not alone: an ICM poll last week found 59 per cent of people would rather retire at 65, even if it meant a lower state pension. Faced with a choice between poverty and feeling overworked, many Britons would rather be poor. It will take more than a lecture from Adair Turner to convince them otherwise: it may take a re-evaluation of the whole idea of work.

Today’s trivia question is: “What generation was the first in history to assert their entitlement to a carefree, decades-long retirement paid for by the children they didn’t have?”