IT would be a very York protest. No "placards and pitchforks", according to Don Parlabean, of York Older Peoples' Assembly, but the refusal by pensioners to go out and vote. Every MP dreads their core supporters staying at home.

Not voting will go against the grain for many pensioners. This is the generation who fought to secure our democratic rights. That they are prepared to relinquish those rights is indicative of their anger.

Pensioners have reason to be angry. While much of modern Britain has got wealthier, those who sacrificed so much to build our prosperity have been left behind.

The National Pensioners' Convention says that the State pension has fallen by £30 a week since the link with earnings was broken in 1980. Meanwhile, the bills keep going up, council tax particularly. This has doubled in the past decade, while most pensions have grown by only 25 per cent.

The Government has responded by introducing the Pension Credit, which comes in a week today. Half of Britain's pensioner population will be eligible for the extra cash.

Yet this too has been criticised. It is a massive extension of means-testing, and hugely complicated.

The simple and fair way to help older people is to restore the link between earnings and their pensions. Only that would quell the growing sense of injustice among the retired.

York MP Hugh Bayley and the Government would do well to listen to this previously ignored section of the population. Now that so few younger people go to the polls, the power of the grey vote is more important than ever. A ballot strike, as opposed to a strike ballot, could prove to be a silent but deadly protest.

Updated: 11:56 Monday, September 29, 2003