I’ve had a lot of missives concerning my newspaper column which was published in the Western Morning News and Western Daily Press at the weekend - here it is…

The first signs of a chill have whispered their way into night-time temperatures this week, and we’re not just talking about cooler evenings. The new government was always going to inherit a freezer-load of bad news and there will be plenty of chill and hardship to come. However, pensioners probably didn’t think the empty coffers would translate to the cutting of their winter fuel allowance quite so soon. 

Speaking as a one-time-only recipient of this allowance, I am somewhat ambivalent about its disappearance. I got mine last year and, as it was the only gift of government cash I’ve ever had, I was feeling very chuffed indeed. But I can understand that, when the public purse is empty, no one should be handing out dosh to the more wealthy pensioner or anyone else who has more than enough to spare.

However, the one-swipe-fits-all policies which governments so often adopt are bound to fail a sizeable chunk of the population. So you’ve got people on Pension Credit who’ll still get the allowance - and there are a great many wealthier OAPs who are fortunate enough not to require handouts - but that does leave the “squeezed middle”. People who are far from rich, but who worked hard for years putting a little aside each month into their work pensions, only to discover these savings tip them over the edge when it comes to any kind of help. 

I am one of those people, but I’m also guilty of being one of the millions who spent years not taking the idea of old-age seriously. I did pay into a work pension, but I never seriously planned for the time when I passed pensionable age. And it has all come as a bit of a shock. 

Why? Partly because, when I’ve found myself between a rock and a hard place in the past, I’ll have attempted to do something about it. I’ll have worked harder to earn more, or perhaps I’ll have looked for a better job.   

I guess you could do that after you’ve passed retirement age, but most OAPs no longer have the boundless drive, ambition or energy necessary. Certainly, you do not think in terms of a whole new career capable of boosting any kind of pension. 

I have no complaints. Like 12 million others in the UK, I had years to make my bed and now I have to lie in it. When I look at some of my mates who have amazingly good pensions, I know they’ve worked hard since leaving school or college and earned every penny. I, on the other hand, spent a sizeable stretch of my youth having a whale of a time.  

Back then, a few youngsters used to do something called “dropping out”. I don’t know if they still do, but I went down that colourful road. For the best part of a decade I worked as a freelance journalist living abroad on next-to-nothing in some remote and far-out places, which didn’t help my state pension.

Did this hedonistic adventure-seeking help further my career? No. Did it enrich my bank account? Of course not. Did it help me learn how to survive come what may? Yes, it did. 

And so my own rather eccentric answer to the disappearance of the winter fuel allowance has been to purchase a chainsaw. 

It’s a powerful electric model, which means you don’t have to pull a wretched cord to get the thing started. Great then, for old geezers like me. Nor do mechanically challenged folk (also me) have to worry about spark plugs, carburettors or any other annoying bits or pieces. And it does a great job. I’ve already cut a pile of logs, so it’s almost paid for itself already, costing just a third of what would have been my winter fuel allowance.   

Some might think the idea of an OAP buying a chainsaw to keep warm is bonkers, especially if they live in a town or city. But then, in my hillbilly way, I reckon you have to be bonkers to live in a place surrounded by concrete. If, however, you live out in the sticks… Well, then, it’s full of… um, sticks. And dry sticks which have fallen off the twig, so to speak, happen to be good at warming old cottages with walls over two feet thick. 

Especially when something terrible is happening in the countryside. I refer to the spread of ash-die-back, which has hit our valley big-time. There’s dead wood everywhere and hardly any of it is being cleared. Indeed, I am worried about some massive ash trees which are showing signs of kicking the arboreal bucket and threatening the valley’s only power line. If that goes down, I’ll definitely be relying on my chainsaw, both to heat the house and to warm the wood-burner oven so that we can cook.   

But… a new age in which pensioners have to glean firewood in order to keep warm! It’s not a good look for our new Labour government. 

Needs must, I suppose. And the good news is that you actually keep warm and healthy doing a bit of active work outdoors. However, I am a little haunted by the question: will I be out chainsawing in years to come? Or will the 90-year-old me freeze to death in his rural idyll?