They had travelled from as far afield as Blackpool and Southampton to vent their anger over their treatment by successive governments.

Appalling weather, trains in chaos, and not even the cost of coming to the capital, was going to dissuade hundreds of senior citizens from making the journey.

And then finally, as they reached their destination, there were dozens of stairs to climb so they could hear words from veteran Labour politician Baroness Barbara Castle, pensions campaigner Jack Jones and the actor Tony Booth.

Anger made them climb those stairs in Methodist Central Hall - the same anger that made them come to London in the first place.

Anger

You could smell that anger. Anger and perhaps just a hint of embrocation.

Some carried banners with legends such as "restore the link" and "no means testing".

One Welsh pensioner, inspired by the nation of bards, carried a placard with the poetic slogan "Blair be fair, show us you care".

The generation that had fought and survived World War II had come to London to teach the politicians a lesson.

Standing ovations

There were rousing speeches from Baroness Castle who said that slogans were not enough.

"Slogans must be defined by law and enforced by law," said the woman who had first enshrined the link between pensions and earnings on the statute book.

Several standing ovations later Baroness Barbara sat down to be replaced at the rostrum, somewhat incongruously, by TV's Dr Mark Porter.

Dr Porter, who's soothing voice is legendary, oozed his best bedside manner as he gently told the gathered throng that those who shouted got the best treatment on the NHS.

They must raise their voices over pensions too, he said

Barnstorming

But perhaps the most barnstorming speech came from Tony Booth, famed both for his TV role as Alf Garnett's "lazy scouse git" son-in-law and for his real life role as Tony Blair's father-in-law.