Lord Wei is reported in yesterday's The Daily Telegraph as saying that working part-time, volunteering for charities or sharing their business experience with young entrepreneurs would help older people avoid boredom in retirement. Apparently a pilot project to establish the idea of a "national retirement service" will target pensioners on cruises and other holidays. They, in turn, will be encouraged to target pensioners in the home localities.

He is quoted as saying: "Baby boomers are the youngest older generation we have ever seen. … They are not into morality,they're not into duty. If we don't facilitate this, there is going to be war. There are going to be arguments up and down the country because one generation thinks the other generation should be doing something."

Lord Wei was the great mind who advised David Cameron about the Big Society. He is 35.

How many young entrepreneurs would listen to a baby boomer?

Lots of us already do plenty for society and did so in our younger days as well.

Maybe targetting those on cruises etc. is the wrong approach, why not just target sites like this one or get an article in local papers. Maybe us 'oldies' could teach him that simplest approach is often best?

Patronising git!

Excuse me but I'm not bored!

Teaching his granny to suck eggs!

Hahahahahaha!!! What an idiot! I have lots of things to do every day, some duty, some choice, some sheer enjoyment that I don't have to work in the stressful job I did any more now I'm retired. We might be the youngest older generation yet, but we are not without our aches, pains, diseases and conditions, and the opportunity to look after myself now means that I will not be a burden on the NHS or my family for as long as possible.

If someone came up to me and intruded on my holiday cruise to get me to start recruiting for their project, they would find themselves swimmming alongside the ship within minutes. What a cheek!

The trouble is that there are some ideas that might be worth exploring in terms of mentoring in business (for example), but the whole thing is ruined by the rhetoric of hate. Once you start talking about "baby-boomers" and "not into duty or morality" you lose any credibility for what you might be trying to achieve. I have just been half watching something similar on BBC1 and apart from the problem of everyone shrieking at once, it seems to me that it is always a debate about a group of people known only to the chattering classes.
Frankly people who want to address this agenda need to get their backsides out of London and find out what happens in the rest of the country.

Unpaid labour is all they want really. No chance matey!

I'm not bored, either! And what will this idea cost the country, I wonder? I know what I'd advise him to do, but I'm not allowed to on here - it starts with 'f' and ends with 'off'!

Hoilday cruise ???? I'm lucky if I have time to row a boat down the river !
What a t**t.
Why not put us up against a wall and shoot us after all we did have the nerve to be born in the 50s and 60s and then go on and work (hard) till retirement with out help from the 'state'. Its our fault for not creeping away and dying, so we deserve all we get !

Annika I agree it seems we are quite a nuisance and no-one listens to us anyway.

I agree with you all except for one thing, susie they will listen to us if we shout loud enough because we are the ones who believe it is our duty to vote - and we do! I heard a statistic the other day which said 40% of voters are retired, I hope its true!

Now can someone come up with something really worthwhile we can chivvy them into doing for us?

Well said, Mamie.
'Not into morality, not into duty'? What does he think we've been doing all our lives?

I really am fed up with these types being lauded by the media, who seem to want to pit pensioners against young people. In my circle of family and friends, it is the pensioners who are supplementing the income of their children and grandchildren, to help out with university, setting up home, providing for babies and all the equipment they need, ferrying family members up and down, picking up children from school, minding or baby-sitting for them, bringing shopping for busy new mums, visiting or caring for sick relatives and friends, volunteering with charities and other community ventures, and much more..........

I can only think that the circle this particular numpty moves in is populated by well-off over 60s who have nothing much to do!

when so what do you do with your spare time......................?[gin] Ok, spotted my mistake, is if Freudian? I'll leave it in

I spend my spare time either on GN or asleep.
Oh and the occasional cruise.

What a prat!

How dare he?

Target!?

TARGET!!??

Targets are for shooting at!

Not into duty? The damn cheek!

Who does the silly prat think have been volunteering in charities, youth groups, school governing bodies, etc, etc while he was growing up into an ignorant prat?

Nasty piece of work, Lord Wei, methinks.

I am always amazed by how much you all do for your families - well beyond the call of 'duty'. If grandparents stopped childminding, often for no pay, businesses would collapse.

It's probably an alien concept to Lord Wei, but this busyness we are all involved in comes from a sense of responsibility and concern to be useful and caring for those around us. If he would just look in the right direction, he would see that his own idea is one that needs promoting amongst HIS nearest and dearest. Perhaps the wealthy and privileged would like to call by their local JobSeekers to offer some support, after they have been in the tax office to pay up their overdue taxes, of course!

Well according to Wikipedia "His father is the Rev. Edward Wei, a pastor and missionary of the Chinese Overseas Christian Mission in the UK."
So perhaps it is more of a Victorian missionary thing, terribly well meaning, a bit naive and not too knowledgeable about the natives.

Just to annoy everyone a bit more, the same article also says, "His proposal came after Nick Hurd, the minister for civil society, suggested last year that the baby boom generation should volunteer when they retire instead of spending their free time playing golf."

They all seem to be seriously concerned that those of us currently aged between 52 and 67 shouldn't have any fun, especially in the form of holidays and hobbies.

Does anyone know what a minister for civil society actually does?

Other than wasting taxpayer's money to justify his/her existence? No.

Taxpayers'

Duck!

'Playing golf', indeed! It really does sound as though he believes that all baby-boom retirees are middle-class and quite affluent, with nothing to do but idle about....

The only ones playing golf around here are the younger men, who manage to find a day off work or a free Saturday morning for a round with their cronies, but struggle to find time for shopping trips, a bit of DIY, or visiting relatives What are they like??