Sir.-I expect we'll be hearing a lot of threats and bleating from Unison as the rationalisation of public sector pensions proceeds over the next few years.

Unions seem to be as wilfully oblivious to reality as ever they were.

The first reality is of a pan-European population shift towards the older end of the age spectrum.

The second reality is that, under the current Government, the public sector has become a behemoth of an employer.

This means that previous public sector pension arrangements have been unrealistically generous and cannot be paid for indefinitely, other than by ever-increasing taxation of the dwindling working population.

Unison members should not forget that it is the current Chancellor of the Exchequer, whom they helped into power, who has dealt the single most damaging blow to pension arrangements by his £5billion annual taxing of pension fund dividends.

This is clearly robbing Peter to pay Paul and typical of the politics supported by Unison - except that it only likes being Paul and today it's Peter.

-Aidan Richardson, Manor Close, Basingstoke.