The anger expressed at the TUC over the closure of final salary schemes is the clearest pointer yet of the electoral trouble into which the Government is heading. Congress’s decision to consider calling a day of protest is however fraught with dangers for both sides.

Could the demonstration be a flop? Will the numbers on the streets simply not materialise? That must be a worry for TUC leaders. But if they join hands with existing pensioner lobbies it ought not to be too difficult to make the strategy a success.

Asking existing pensioners to begin filling up the centre of each major town and city as the morning of the day of protest progresses, could then be capped with a call for all workers to spend their lunchtime on the demonstration. Trade unionists and non-trade unionists are likely to join in. With a bit of luck more people could be protesting in the middle of the day of protest than turned out to oppose the Iraqi war.

Such a demonstration could have a dramatic political impact. At the moment there is not a politician alive who does not genuflect before the pension’s issue, but these expressions of sympathy do not amount to much more than a row of beans. That is not because politicians are not genuine. They certainly are.

Individuals Ministers, likewise, express their worry and busy themselves with attempts to patch up the fast crumbling system. But nothing very dramatic results from their best intentions.

Why is this? One major explanation centres on how Government works. Election manifestos are important as they set out the shopping lists of actions a party promises to take when in office. Get on to that list and it is likely that something will happen, even the promise being fulfilled.

New items for action only get on to the Government’s action list if they are, so to speak, dive bombed up the political agenda. A sense of crisis is crucial to a successful political dive bombing operation. Foot and mouth is one example. The issue becomes so important that the Government is forced to act.

So far, despite the obvious mega crisis in pensions, the central hub of the Government’s machine remains undisturbed. A day of action on pensions, culminating with lunchtime inner city rallies across the country producing millions of protesters could disturb that calm at the centre of Government. Senior Ministers might come to see pensions as an issue which further erodes the likelihood of Labour supporters voting resulting in a possible opposition win on a record low poll.

There is precious little value in devising a political dive bomb strategy if the dive bombers have little or no idea on what to press the Government. Here the different groups must join forces otherwise the Government will divide and rule.

The Government is unlikely to concede to the trade union demands to link the state basic pension to earnings. But all the figures show that the poorest pensioners are the oldest pensioners who are those who find it most difficult to jump through the MIG, soon to be the Pension Credit hoop. An immediate restoration of the earnings link for the over 80s might be something the Government would consider.

Likewise, the TUC must convince the Government to give its proposed new pension insurance scheme the power to borrow. Without this the reform won’t amount to much. Similarly, the unions must put forward a strategy of how best to take the pressure off those company pension schemes which survive. The Pensions Reform Group, of which I am a member, has proposed such a scheme. Move one is for all new workers to be put into a new universal funded scheme. Contributions would initially be limited to the National Insurance rebate.

Move two could be to pledge that the growing surplus on the National Insurance Fund over the next few decades will be used as additional contributions. These two sources of funds would over time produce a pension near to lifting people free of means-tested help.

Employers knowing that for the first time ever every worker moving towards retirement would gain an adequate first pension, only to be topped up by the company pension, might begin to think differently about the future of their own scheme. So let us hope the TUC is courageous enough to call the day of protest and also have a clear strategy for Government action.