Well, it's better than nothing, but it's still a long way short of just. Telecom pensioners and their surviving spouses and dependent children have persuaded the government to set aside a particular allocation of shares in the flotation of the company specifically for them.

The 8,000 pensioners will be able to apply for up to £3,000 worth of Telecom shares in addition to any entitlement they have as members of the public in the general share offering. Survivors of Telecom pensioners will be eligible for the additional allocation on a pro-rata basis.

The catch is that they will have to buy these extra shares at the full flotation price. Now, I don't know what the pension of, say, a former switchboard operator or line maintenance engineer amounts to, but I'm prepared to hazard a guess that there will be very few of this group in a position to apply for any sizeable holding in the company, to say nothing of pitching for an additional £3,000 worth of stock.

Remember these are the very people whose work has added the value to the group in the preparation for its flotation. Much was said by both staff and employers about this added value when they were setting up the employee share option plan (ESOP), which gave staff a free stake in the company. Unfortunately, while both sides were keen to ensure that even the most recent arrivals to the Telecom workforce benefited under the ESOP, they thought little of their former colleagues.

Don't get me wrong here; I'm not knocking the Government which, as it happens, appears to have gone some way to try to mitigate a previous mistake. It is the unions, whose members these pensioners were during their working lives, which should have ensured they were included when everyone was carving a slice of Telecom for themselves. Maybe they'd care to match the Government's offer by setting aside a portion of the free shares they have negotiated in the group for these pensioners on a pro-rata basis . . .