It’s increasingly difficult to understand the fiscal decisions being made by the Labour Government.

Rachel Reeves’ financial acumen is being ripped apart each day (Image: PA)

The political mantra is well-known: to govern is to choose. So it doesn’t seem unfair to ask just who on earth is making the choices right now, because the decision to announce that only some pensioners are to be in receipt of their winter fuel allowance without providing any specifics on the very same day the government announced they’d found £1billion to provide more  free school meals for around half a million children was a shocking piece of timing.

Don’t get me wrong, of course meals should be provided to every child who might need them, but remember you can only spend a pound once. And to continue to play Scrooge with people who, in some instances, will have paid into the system for up to five or even six decades is plain wrong.

While there will be countless deserving cases, let’s face facts here. Many of these unfortunate children will have parents or a parent who could review where their cash is going or even go out and get extra work, neither of which is likely to be a valid option for most pensioners, many of whom relied on that £300 winter fuel lifeline.

This news also came the same week the Government managed to shake the magic money tree and find more than £15 billion for transport initiatives such as new rail links, extra trams and buses.

Again, I’m delighted for the good folk of towns and cities such as Stockport, Rochdale and Nottingham, but helping fund this off the back of pensioners is unjust.

Disturbingly, the politician supposedly looking out for this age group was also found to be totally wanting last week. Pensions Minister Torsten Bell sparked outrage when he said the scrapping of the allowance last year had “no effect” on the health of our elderly.

This despite the fact that when in opposition Labour had claimed similar measures would lead to 4,000 extra deaths each winter – and bungler Bell was running the think-tank which produced those figures!

It probably makes a lot more sense to listen to what coordinator Simon Francis, who is with the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, had to say when he claimed official figures actually showed a 3.3% lift in the expected number of deaths among the over-75s.

It is expected Chancellor Rachel Reeves will this week announce more detail about just who is going to have the payments reinstated, but her financial acumen is being shredded almost by the day.

She’ll be sure to bang on about “fiscal rules” and “secureonomics” but remember this is the very same politician who allows us to spend about £7 billion a  year on hotels for asylum seekers and £81 billion on a high speed railway line few people, apart from the contractors who are busy destroying Buckinghamshire, actually want.

But if the research from the charity is right and people died unnecessarily as a result of this policy and that’s still not enough to change government policy, you can only wonder what it would take.