I AM happy and flattered to have been of service to Brian Derbyshire by providing him with a source for a visit to his spiritual home -- the archives.

It is a pity, however, that having categorised statistics in the words of Disraeli as the greatest lie, he then fills his letter with them.

The point he overlooked was that if it was possible to change the pension link to prices when they were rising faster than wages, it was equally within the competence of a Secretary of State to reverse this.

I would remind him of the quote in my original letter - The Secretary of State remained free to 'estimate the general level of earnings and prices in such a manner as he thinks fit' and was obliged simply to 'have regard either to earnings or prices according to which he considers more advantageous to beneficiaries'.

The Labour Government seemed to prefer scoring rather dubious political points on the subject rather than actually returning to an earnings link.

Conservative policy is, of course, to seek the link which would be of greatest benefit to pensioners like myself.

Jolyon Coombs

Carslake Avenue

Bolton