Senior citizens champion and former MSP John Swinburne has declared his support for Scottish independence.
The Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party member, who served between 1999-2003, claimed it was “the key to a better life and a better country for all our people, young and old”.
Mr Swinburne and other former MSPs gathered in Edinburgh yesterday to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament.
The legislature sat at the Church of Scotland’s General Assembly Hall on the Mound until 2004 when it moved to Holyrood.
Mr Swinburne, a former Central Scotland MSP, said: “I have no doubt that a ‘yes’ vote offers our older people the best prospect of a better and fairer pensions system.
‘Scotland is a very wealthy country – certainly wealthier than the UK.
“As a nation in charge of our own future and making decisions according to our own needs and priorities, we can well afford to provide decent pensions for our senior citizens.
‘Of course, it is up to the political parties to put forward their pension proposals at the first elections to an independent Scottish Parliament in 2016, but only a ‘yes’ vote in September allows us to change the value of our pension and the retirement age.”
Mr Swinburn claimed Westminster could not be trusted to look after pensioners.
“We have been badly let down by successive UK governments, including Gordon Brown’s pension funds tax raid and David Cameron’s cuts,” he said.
The anniversary event was also attended by former MSPs Shiona Baird, who represented the Green Party in the north-east, John McAllion who served as a Labour MSP in Dundee, and Colin Fox of the Scottish Socialist Party.
Ms Baird, who was a politician between 2003-2007, said: “When we started it was a new parliament and since then, term-on-term, we have been maturing.
“At this point we are in a good position to say we can go it alone and take our own decisions.
‘Since devolution we have had a much stronger voice on green issues and we have made progress of achieving more fairness and greater equality.
“I look forward to more progress in an independent Scotland.”