When Jeremy Hunt calls the pensions triple lock "not just unaffordable, but actually immoral", he's reaching for a word designed to make pensioners flinch, but it's the wrong one.

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There is a serious argument buried under the theatrics. The triple lock guarantees the state pension rises each year by the highest of inflation, average earnings or 2.5 per cent. Stack those "highest of" increases on top of one another, year after year, and the bill compounds relentlessly. The Office for Budget Responsibility expects the policy to cost around £15.5 billion a year by 2030. With an ageing population and a shrinking pool of workers footing the bill, a future in which younger taxpayers pour ever more into a system they may........

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