Speaking to pensioners at a day care centre, I explained my Party’s policy on helping pensioners. The first, and arguably the most important, is our proposal to raise the basic state pension in line with earnings to help stop the spread of the means test. At the same time, we will reinvigorate occupational pensions - working with employers and industry to support auto-enrolment into pensions and look at how we can simplify the rules and regulations round pensions. We will: • Give people more control over their retirement income by ending the effective obligation to buy an annuity at 75.

• Take the tough decisions needed to ensure all pensioners receive a decent state pension.

• Hold a review to bring forward the date at which the state pension age starts to rise to 66, although it will not be sooner than 2016 for men and 2020 for women.

We want to make sure public sector pensions are fair and affordable. An incoming Conservative government would work with the trade unions, businesses and others to address the growing disparity between public sector pensions and private sector pensions, while protecting accrued rights. A Conservative government would place a cap on the biggest government pensions, including those for senior civil servants, local council executives and quango managers. When resources allow, our ambition is to start to reverse the effects of the abolition of the dividend tax credit for pension funds.

As well as recognising the contributions older people make to society, a Conservative government will look at ways of creating more personalisation in health and social care. We will introduce a new ‘home protection scheme’ that will end the desperate situation whereby tens of thousands of older people are being forced to sell their homes each year to pay for residential care at the end of their lives. We want to ensure a fairer deal for grandparents, and are looking at ways in which a Conservative government could make it easier for grandparents to receive tax credits and allowances when looking after their grandchildren. These measures went down very well so our meeting was well received.

Later that evening I attended another house meeting in Colindale. Once again, I was very pleased that so many visited their neighbour's house to ask about the election and what the Conservatives were proposing to do, if elected. We covered a range of subjects including immigration, crime, police and the licensing regime.

When we got home we watched the second Leaders’ Debate. I don’t really want to give my opinion in this blog but I think it was a lot more even than the previous week. As I had said at the hustings meeting the night before, while I think the debates are a good idea and will provoke more interest in voting, most people either have, or will, make their decision based on the previous five years and how Gordon Brown has performed. Based on that, Brown certainly came last.