Focus: 65: Time to retire? Not for Ken (or John or Irene...)

Unfortunately for Mr Cameron, a lot of people don't agree. Not least the 17 per cent of the UK population who are over the compulsory retirement age. And especially the ones who refuse to believe they are all washed up at 65. According to government figures, a man of that age today can expect to live another 19 years. His wife will still be going when she is 87. Their good health will probably continue into their seventies, and they are absolutely refusing to squander it.

Even the Labour government, headed by the youngest Prime Minister in 200 years, believes it is a waste to let valuable experience be lost to the economy because of an arbitrary number. New legislation, due to come into force next autumn, will make age discrimination in vocational training and employment unlawful. It is one Labour policy of which Mr Clarke would no doubt approve.

But it is not only in the venerable world of politics that workers are refusing to hit the wall the minute they have got into their stride. Research sponsored by Norwich Union in 2002 showed that over a third of 65- to 74-year-olds choose to go back to work. "It is becoming ever more common for people to carry on working or take up a new career after the standard retirement age," says Gary Fitzgibbon, a business psychologist who studies retirement. "People are making radical changes in their lives much more than they were. And it is far more prevalent for people to be self-employed, meaning they can largely ignore the protocols of retiring at 65."

Emma Soames agrees. And, as the editor of Saga Magazine and a longstanding champion of the over-65s, she has the names and numbers to prove it. "Ken Morrison was 73 when he put in the Safeway bid," she points out. "Peter Hall is 74 and still going strong. Look at Lucian Freud. We have a feature in our magazine about Charles Chadwick, who retired as a civil servant and has just published his first book, It's All Right Now, at 72. It is a massively good book, it has already won several prizes. With age, if your energy levels are high, you have a wealth of experience you can plug into. And, excuse me, 65, in politics? Prey, what is this, a mere stripling?"

Look at some of the people who have turned 65 in the past 12 months. Al Pacino. Lord Winston. Esther Rantzen. Tom Jones. Penelope Keith. Frank Dobson. Clive James. Ralph Lauren. John Cleese. John Pilger. Are they really ready to be pensioned off?

Some employers are catching on. Businesses such as B&Q and Asda already target the over-65s, looking for the experience and wisdom they believe makes for better staff. B&Q's oldest employee is 90-year-old Reg Hill from Wiltshire. "It gets me up in the morning," he says. "It gets me out and it keeps me active. I'm using my brain far more than I would do at home."

Mr Hill is happy, his employer is very happy and the Government ought to be over the moon: the former secretary of state for work and pensions, Andrew Smith, recently bemoaned the "wealth of talent and experience in the workplace that is being lost as people stop working too early". He should be thrilled at Mr Clarke's nomination.

Elderly employment law is also beginning to catch up. Under the Government's forthcoming age-discrimination legislation, part of the European Employment Directive, "retirement ages that employers set for employees will be unlawful. Employers would be able to justify mandatory retirement ages only if their particular circumstances made it appropriate and necessary."

The Department for Trade and Industry is also asking for comments on a default age of 70, after which employers could require employees to retire without having to justify their decision. The law would require employers to give their staff six months' notice before they are due to retire.

Preparation is crucial, says Mr Fitzgibbon, who works with people who want to make more of their third age. "Throughout your life, you go through a series of transitions," he says. "School to university, university to job, job to job ... In each case you think about what you are going to do based on a schedule of work that needs to be done.

"Retirement is a very loose idea. People think they will travel the world or do the garden. Well OK, that will take two or three years, at most. The next 20 or 30 or 40 years is a long time with no guide. Once you decide you don't have a purpose you start to deteriorate mentally and your life expectancy is lower. As psychologists we look at what people's skills are - both the skills they have developed and the potential skills they have never used in work - and give them a plan."

Both Mr Fitzgibbon and Ms Soames are fully behind Kenneth Clarke and his peers. "I'd advise him not to blink at any prejudice, to draw on all the experience he has gained, to improve his shoes and to keep right on," says Ms Soames. Mr Fitzgibbon agrees. "He should continue the way he is now, focusing on the issues that matter and not paying any attention to people who say his age makes him unsuitable for the job."

Perhaps he should also take heart from Ronald Reagan, whose great age of 73 led to sniggering among his presidential rivals. After a particular grilling from the Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale in their first debate in 1984, Reagan put his case. "I will not make age an issue of this campaign," he countered. "I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."

'I was a dinner lady - but now I am a model'

Irene Sinclair, 96, north London. Made her debut as a model in the Dove campaign, aged 95

I was a dinner lady until I retired when I was 65. I had never considered myself beautiful and was amazed to be asked to be in a beauty campaign. I was told that an older woman was sought to explode the myth that you have to be young to look beautiful. A casting agent spotted me when she visited the sheltered accommodation I live in. I was 95. My family are really proud of me. I was very surprised to be asked but I have really enjoyed the experience - having photographs taken by Rankin and travelling to the US and Europe to attend launches has been an amazing experience. I have a very active life and love keeping busy. It was an opportunity that was too good to miss and I thought, 'Why not?' Keeping my mind sharp is really important. I read the papers every day and I am an avid crossword fan. I love to travel and meet people and will carry on working when opportunities arise. Ken Clarke is a spring chicken! It's never too late!

'I left the firm after 43 years to become a radio DJ'

John Taylor, 84, Norwich. Retired at 60 and started hosting music show at 65

I worked at Norwich Union for 43 years, apart from when I did my national service. And when I retired at 60, like a lot of people I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't think about just sitting around and doing nothing. I started learning German, French and Italian and I started a weekly report for Radio Norwich on the game of bowls. Then they started a programme called Norfolk Airline. It was the beginning of chat shows, and I was the wise - ha, ha! - old soul who talked about things of yesteryear. The public loved it, so in 1986 they offered me a music programme. It's called Radio Times, and I play music hall and variety, light music and grand opera. I've just completed my 662nd programme. They say as long as I want to do it I can. I was made an MBE in 2000 for services to broadcasting and charitable causes. I tell my children, who are 42 and 45, 'What you don't realise is that I am a celebrity!'

'Radio Times', Radio Norwich, Sundays 4-6pm

PENSIONERS IN THEIR PRIME

66: Winston Churchill

Churchill was a bright star and first became an MP in 1900, aged 25. Headstrong and angry, he was seen as a dangerous eccentric, and by his fifties his career as a serious politician was assumed to be over. But he hung on, warning for years about the dangers of Hitler's Germany. On Chamberlain's resignation in 1940 he became Prime Minister, aged 66, and led Britain and the Allies to victory.

65: Colonel Sanders

Harlan Sanders, finger lickin' king of Kentucky Fried Chicken, entered his sixties surviving on social security handouts. Aged 65, he took to the road to franchise the fried chicken recipe he had perfected in a diner in Kentucky. Within 10 years Sanders had more than 600 franchised outlets across the US. He travelled a reputed 250,000 miles annually, visiting KFCs the world over, until he was 90.

70: Alfred Wallis

Little Alfred was nine when he went to sea as a Cornish fisherman in 1864. His paintings on driftwood of harbour scenes and boats, begun when he retired in 1925, aged 70, caught the attention of the artist Ben Nicholson, who brought Wallis to international attention. His pictures are now in museums and galleries around the world, including 12 in the Tate. He died at 87 in 1942.

79: Jessica Tandy

The British-born actress concentrated on theatre for most of her career, winning three Tonys along the way - two after she was 65. At the age of 79, her role as the stubborn, Southern-Jewish matron in Driving Miss Daisy made her a Hollywood star and gained her the accolade of becoming the oldest actor to win an Oscar. At 81, she was nominated by People magazine as one of the world's 50 most beautiful people.

78: Pope Benedict XVI

Joseph Alois Ratzinger became the oldest pope since 1730 when he was elected in April this year, aged 78. At 15, a year after he was forced to join the Hitler Youth, he declared his intention to become a bishop. Strongly conservative, with views that chimed with John Paul ll's, he headed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith from 1981, making him one of the most powerful men in the Vatican.

70: Mary Wesley

Mary Wesley, author of a string of bestsellers,had her first book published at the age of 70. A penniless widow in 1970, she was encouraged to write by her novelist friend Antonia White, but nearly gave up when her debut novel, Jumping the Queue, was turned down several times. The vigorous sexuality of her well-bred heroines delighted her readers. She was created a CBE in 1995 and died at 90.

64: Paul Anka

Paul Anka, the songwriter and crooner, is launching a new career aged 64, performing bizarre swing versions of classic rock songs by bands such as Nirvana, Bon Jovi and Oasis. Anka, who has written more than 900 songs including "My Way" for Frank Sinatra, is wowing the US with his new genre and his album, Rock Swings, sold 50,000 copies in its first week. It is released in the UK in a fortnight.

67: Harry Stonecipher

Stonecipher, previously vice-chairman of Boeing, came out of retirement aged 67, in December 2003, to take over as president and chief executive of the company. Unfortunately he didn't get much of a stint with his hands on the controls - he was fired in March, after 15 months, following an affair with a colleague, Debra Peabody, a divorced brunette 20 years his junior.