COLD COMFORT
THE exhibition of concern for the plight of the old and cold in Parliament this week has been contemptible. Mr Neil Kinnock `I had no idea you could get Aids from volcanoes.' asked, 'How many old people extra are going to have to die before she (the Prime Minister) changes her policy?' and Mrs Thatcher undercut Labour's attack by making a £5 severe weather payment for this week. There is no good reason for making special payments, since extreme cold in January and February is an almost annual occurrence which people can fore- see and protect against. The scandal is the lack of emergency services to the old on these occasions. Councils seldom come quickly to calls from the sick and elderly whose pipes have burst. They do not get ice off pavements (far more old people suffer from severe falls in cold weather than from hypothermia). They list no winter emergency service in the telephone book. No old people will die because they are not getting the £5 for each winter week that Mr Michael Meacher promises them. Several will do so because there is no one available to help them at the moment when their heating has broken down.
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