SO average earnings in Swindon are now £25,439 (Evening Advertiser, September 19). How nice for Mr and Mrs Average. I have heard that Unison union workers are struggling to live on £200 plus per week and that firemen want a 40 per cent increase to around £600 per week. Heaven knows what the 'fat cat' salaries are.

I would not for one moment denigrate the value of firemen and other like service providers but the greedy race which has stemmed from the Thatcher era of self, self, self and 'blow you Jack, I'm alright' has got totally out of hand.

We are in an age now where talk is in millions of pounds: company bosses' salaries; golden handshakes; footballer transfer fees; footballers' and stars' earnings running into thousands of pounds per week. I could list so many but do any of them know, or even care, how the other half live?

I am a 75-year-old who served King and country in the 1940s. My wife died of cancer almost 11 years ago. I have since suffered four heart attacks, undergone major heart surgery (owing my life to both highly paid and under-paid professionals), have since been diagnosed diabetic and currently suffering the pain of peripheral arterial disease.

I am one of the other half with a princely state pension of £85.88p a week (£4,604.46 per annum). Like so many others, I consider myself to be a miracle worker, although no matter how hard I try I just cannot turn my water into wine! While at the bottom of the pay league table, pensioners pay most for our own survival. The smallest portions are always the dearest pro rata.

The council takes £53 a month council tax and that is after a 25 per cent discount for sole occupier. Homes where there are two or more earners can share the load, so why are sole occupants not given at least 50 per cent?

Water rates, gas, electricity and telephone (a necessity, not a luxury) all have to be paid for at going rates, to say nothing of food, clothes and travel. We fall in line with many of the European Community decisions and rulings but we do not hike our pensions up to the level enjoyed by many of the other Community countries' pensioners.

Perhaps I might prick the consciences of the well-heeled with a couple of closing facts. As a Rover pensioner (over 20 years in Pressed Steel) I have a small company pension which rises annually in May. This year it was increased by 35p per calendar month (little over 1p a day), from £48.36 to £48.71 per calendar month barely enough to buy half a loaf of bread a month.

Secondly, my current account at the bank is one with interest and every quarter my statement typically reads: interest 7p (for three months) less income tax 1p, net 6p.

Perhaps I should march with a banner but my legs won't carry me any more. Perhaps fairness and not greed in society is and always will be just a pipe-dream and 'blow you Jack, I'm alright' will be the clarion call ad infinitum.

IVAN E RICKWOOD

Islandemead

Eldene

Swindon