Stop stereotyping older generations in the UK – not all of us voted to leave the EU

Once again, Ben Chu lashes out at the elderly because “they were the ones who voted for Brexit and also, they’re doing very nicely financially”. Soon, the younger populace will be demanding the equivalent of abandoning us on an ice floe when we become elderly, as the Eskimos used to do. I think it’s dangerous to demonise sections of society.

I’m 75 and voted to remain. I also become more of a leftie the older I got. As to my lavish lifestyle, I have cared for my husband with dementia since 2010 with virtually no help. Now that he is bed bound and unconscious in a nursing home, I pay out large sums of money for nursing home fees from my savings. My health is shaky from years of stress but I can’t get to see my own doctor without queuing on the pavement outside the surgery for an appointment for a fortnight’s time.

So I’m having the time of my life!

Anonymous

I have some startling news for Ben Chu, it’s not just in Britain that people are living longer. His articles always seem to blame the elderly for all the ails in the country.

As “almost a pensioner” I am sick of being castigated as the problem that besets this country. Well, I am not. I have worked all my life, paid taxes all my life, and done everything the governments in power have expected of me. I bought my own house, saved for a rainy day and even put money into a private pension as the Government told me my state pension would not be enough to have a decent retirement on.

They tell me to eat healthy, and I do, they tell me not to smoke, and I don’t, they tell me to drink in moderation and I do, and I am told to exercise to keep healthy. What’s the point of doing all this if I get to live to a decent age only to be guilt tripped because I may bed-block a hospital, or stop a younger person getting a job or a house?

So what do I find as I near retirement? Well my investments and savings aren’t worth anything, I have to live to over a hundred to just get the money back that I’ve paid into my pension, (oh and then when I die my money, which they’ve been managing for me and charging me a fee for, is kept by them!!) and my state pension isn’t something most people can live on. I’d love to see Theresa May living on it. There’d be no more Jimmy Choos for sure.

Let’s look at the honourable members and see how their life has been changed during this austerity that they and the bankers got us in. Well, they still get a nice big pension for their services to the country even if it means the country is in a worse state. They give themselves a pay rise and of course they benefit from us paying their expenses on a second home when that thirty minutes in a taxi to the outskirts of London is just too much to cope with after a long session in the house. Remember, the food and drink is subsidised, so one has to take advantage. If they are lucky to make it to the upper house then along with the profits on the sale of their second house, they can expect the £300 a day and some nice subsidised food and wine for just turning up. Of course, like all managers, they all do “terribly important work”.

The problem is not that people are getting older, funnily enough it’s happening all over the world, but that our governments are not interested in making life better for the people in the country. We all know that there has been no investment in the country, especially outside of “London”, they are only looking after themselves and their cronies. They lied to us over Brexit and had absolutely no plans in place when it happened, they change allegiances at the drop of a hat and form unholy alliances with anyone who shows even the slightest interest in us. It was interesting to note that we could have a vote to trigger article 50, one of the biggest decisions ever facing the country, without any white paper and a minuscule debate in parliament, yet when the scandal about expenses and tax loopholes became news, our right honourable chancellor said it would take two years to sort out. That speaks volumes about what our representatives really think about us.

I don’t know what the solution to these problems are: higher taxes for the wealthy who let’s be honest can afford it (how many houses, jewels, cars and trust funds does one need before you have enough?), more rigorous taxing from the big companies and severe punishments for anyone who breaks the rules. So Ben, stop blaming the good old pensioners who’ve worked so hard they are worn out, and blame the people who make all the wrong decisions when it comes to running the country, and taking good care of the people they are supposed to represent.

Ken Twiss

Looking on the bright side there are many reasons to be cheerful regarding the visit of America’s “so called” newly, duly elected. He must be a godsend for every worthwhile British male and female comedian. Not forgetting our highly talented and internationally respected satirists. We, the British public, could do with a big belly laugh after the Brexit vote.

As preparations are being made to vent our anger at this state visit no one wants, we have to take on board the situation that has been forced on us. Rather than do our usual and predictable gathering in our thousands, to line the route to the palace, screaming and shouting various abuses, getting sore throats, bad tempered and hot under the collar, may I respectfully suggest a different kind of protest all together. SILENCE.

Yes please do gather together in our hundreds of thousands but as soon as Trumps cortège comes in sight we all of us turn our backs to the road, our backs to him personally and do not utter a sound. Not a pip squeak. The massed ranks of the British people in complete SILENCE, with their backs turned to him would unnerve him. He is a creature of the overblown American media. He thrives and survives on sound. Any kind of sound, be it hostile or adulation. It is all oxygen to his overinflated ego. It might show the world we still, as a nation, retain our dignity, despite what Theresa May might do.

Our glorious Queen Elizabeth has, over the decades, seen off many a dictator. She is well able to do what she does best. After all this is a first, in her long glorious reign. The first time she has hosted a dinner party for a reality TV celebrity. Keep an eye on the cutlery and condiment sets Ma’am. When it’s all over she and the family will have a wealth of material for their games of Christmas charades.

I think our news anchors and journalists have a much more difficult job keeping a straight face when interviewing any of his backup band of “Barbie Grannies”. I looked aghast at the number of those “Old Biddies”, as my mother would have called them. They seem to have been liberated from the Palm Springs retirement home for old showgirls. These “fatal females”, the Americanisation of the original French, can hiss and spit up a storm when defending their saviour. All those years of back stage infighting can finally be put to good use, even in their twilight years.

Each it seems shares the same plastic surgeon and hairdresser. The cascade of acres of luxuriant highlighted blond tresses. Well extensions anyway – hair sold by some of the poorest women in the world so they can put food on the table. Beautiful hair washed, bleached then stitched into rows so they can be worn by some of the world’s wealthiest, scariest women. Make up, war paint in their case, exquisitely applied by the same old darling dressing room artist from Las Vegas.

Yes, yes, yes citizens of GB. Line the route in your hundreds of thousands but keep shtum, very shtum indeed.

Michael James

After a General Election, the opposition parties continue to oppose the Government when its policies are in opposition to theirs. They do not meekly submit, by citing “the public has spoken” and “we must respect the views of the majority of the public”, but continue with their viewpoint even if not supported by the majority of the electorate.

So why that stance after the referendum? Who is speaking out for the 48 per cent who voted to remain? Or the millions who did not vote either way?

The continued quoting of “we must respect the Referendum result” from the two major parties – who both opposed leaving the EU – is not representative of that vote.

It is time the views of the 48 per cent were fully represented by our MPs in any future votes.

David J Williams
​Colwyn Bay

I think it is more than a little rich for the green lobby to be quite so critical about the Government’s latest attempt to ensure that there is always sufficient generating capacity available or, for that matter, to exaggerate the harm coal fired power stations do to the population at large. The need for coal fired stations to be paid to provide standby capacity is largely down to the activities of the green lobby who have campaigned enthusiastically for wind power above all else for a long time and just as enthusiastically against the other main low carbon alternatives of nuclear and tidal power.

There have recently been periods when the land based wind turbines have been producing next to no usable electricity due to a high pressure system centred over the UK. Interruptible contracts are already used to manage the system but there is only a limited area within industry where such contracts make economic sense. So who wants to return to the days of regular power outages and a three day week? That particular episode could have been avoided given a bit of goodwill on both sides but lack of sufficient generating capacity is a different ball game in which there is no referee to call time.

Roger Chapman
​Keighley

Martin Heaton (Letters) whose critical faculties are not in dispute, is absolutely right to consider all sides of the Brexit argument. I hope that I did the same in reaching the painful, counter-instinctive and nuanced decision to reverse my vote of 1975.

He lists a number of desirable outcomes but only one, unfettered access to the single market, is dependent upon membership of the EU. As to whether this is worth the loss of democratic accountability is a matter of judgement. In my view, it is not.

Hugh Murray
Newmarket