I HAVE no wish to dampen the spirits of EV Hills (HAS, March 5), but my late brother, on reaching the age of 80 in 2007, said that if he saved his 25p pension increase for eight weeks he could then buy a pint at his local.

This year, it is my turn to become an octogenarian and the same pint in the sale local will now take 12 weeks of pension increase to buy – that is before the Budget – but only two weeks to buy a postage stamp.

My best wishes to EV Hills for 2018.

GW Middlemiss, Darlington.