‘My era has been screwed over a lot – it is time to drop the triple lock’

The Daily Star’s Adam Cailler is part of one of the hardest hit generations when it comes to tax and more, and the chaos of the triple lock decision could make or break Andy Burnham

I am 36. Since I turned 18, we’ve had the financial crash, multiple wars around the world, a pandemic, more wars, austerity, several Prime Ministers and nothing but higher tax upon higher tax.

Meanwhile, the thread running through a lot of this has been the “triple lock”. Politicians treat this as if it were some mythical overlord that can not be touched. But what it actually is, is a noose around the neck of this country, and around anyone under the age of 50 who works hard for their money.

We are hit with the largest tax burdens of any generation, in a bid to try and bring down the country’s debts – but hey, has anyone noticed that this hasn’t worked for nearly two decades, so why would it work now?

So why has everyone over a certain age reacted in such uproar about Andy Burnham opening the door to stopping the triple lock? Well, I’m not really sure – and the only answer you get from a lot of people (including Unite leader Sharon Graham) is that it’s “electoral suicide”.

But take all the hype away from the thing that costs around £15b a year, all the triple lock being scrapped would mean a small increase in pension payments.

It will not DECREASE the payments . . . it just makes the amount they get go up less each year.

As a country, we’re utterly screwed, and my generation are constantly feeling it more and more, every day.

Bills up, tax up, cost of living rising almost daily – and the one thing that makes sense to do is being treated as if the entire country will collapse.

But it won’t. It will push the country into fixing social care, it will ease the pressure on the future generations and it will show that actually, Mr Burnham is not Keir Starmer version two.

It will show that Mr Burnham might actually a good Prime Minister after all.

I shall prepare my inbox for abuse from anyone aged 60 and up . . .