Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Work and Pensions – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 16 March 2009.
Rosie Winterton
Minister of State (Regional Affairs) (Yorkshire and the Humber), Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions) (Pensions Reform) and Minister (Yorkshire and the Humber)
2:30,
16 March 2009
As I said, we have tried to get help to pensioners, especially through the extra winter fuel payments and the Christmas bonus. Compared with 1997, when the Government came to power, the average pensioner is about £1,600 a year better off and the most vulnerable pensioners are about £2,200 better off. If we had continued with the 1997 Tory Government's policies, we would spend £13 billion less on pensioners.
The political party system in the English-speaking world evolved in the 17th century, during the fight over the ascension of James the Second to the Throne. James was a Catholic and a Stuart. Those who argued for Parliamentary supremacy were called Whigs, after a Scottish word whiggamore, meaning "horse-driver," applied to Protestant rebels. It was meant as an insult.
They were opposed by Tories, from the Irish word toraidhe (literally, "pursuer," but commonly applied to highwaymen and cow thieves). It was used — obviously derisively — to refer to those who supported the Crown.
By the mid 1700s, the words Tory and Whig were commonly used to describe two political groupings. Tories supported the Church of England, the Crown, and the country gentry, while Whigs supported the rights of religious dissent and the rising industrial bourgeoisie. In the 19th century, Whigs became Liberals; Tories became Conservatives.
