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Everyday Ageism

We do exist, but after this why bother?

(140 Posts)
M0nica Thu 07-Mar-19 16:19:49

Prince Harry gave a speech yesterday in which he said:

You may find yourself frustrated with the older generation when it seems they don’t care. Try to remember that not everyone sees the world the way you do but that doesn’t mean they don’t care.

You have the the incredible opportunity to help reshape mindsets, to empower those around you to think outside the box and to work with you, not against you, to find solutions

Now I know he is not the sharpest knife in the box, but he pas a personal office which contains press and media advisers - and probably speech writers as well, but why did someone let him make statements like this.

I wonder what is grandmother has said to him in private about it?

pinkquartz Fri 08-Mar-19 13:39:23

I think Harry was out of order talking about older people that way.
Not exactly in tune with respect for those that gave their lives in the War but also many of us have cared about the environment and the welfare of other people all our lives.
we are all Grans here and we love our grandchildren....I have no beef or disrespect against young people.
Also he is a hypocrite with his wife's flagrant spending habit sna both of them jetting around while telling younger poor people to do their bit.
He is far too lucky and privileged for no reason other than being born. I will be glad when we stop worshipping the RF as if they were more special than everyone else.

sarahellenwhitney Fri 08-Mar-19 13:40:18

Jalilmall08
Re strife and agree with what you say .There appears to be far to much these days of 'Oh its alright for you 'and this from my own experience and a pensioner, that everything I have mainly my own property was handed me on a plate.
I was never university material so on leaving school went from one mediocre job to the next until experience of such mixture eventually paid off. The rest is history.

pinkquartz Fri 08-Mar-19 13:43:52

I remember being young and believing that the older generations had messed up. We really thought that nuclear was quite possible and that was very scary.
I remember doing all I could to not make the same mistakes but in the end we all make mistakes and no-one lives a perfect life.
If PH wants to help save the world he could start by changing his habits and those of his family. Prince Charles is passionate about Organic Farming and that is a huge positive yet Harry doesn't even seem to care about that.
So what is his concrete contribution to saving the planet? Pretty words won't do it.

Horatia Fri 08-Mar-19 13:45:21

Harry and Megan are doing really well to 'engage' with young people, considering their own ages in comparison.

Nanniejc1 Fri 08-Mar-19 13:55:46

Oh ,so MOnica you are inferring that everyone who voted for Brexit are ‘thick ,stupid & old?I really don’t think so.......my whole family voted to leave the EU ,young & old ,to be honest most people I know voted to leave & I don’t think you can talk about people the way that you have.No way are 17 1/2 million people who voted for Brexit all ‘thick’ in fact people who voted to leave think that Remainers are stupid!

Nanniejc1 Fri 08-Mar-19 14:00:55

Everyone has a right to their own opinion,please remember that.We may not all have a degree but ‘common sense’ is just as important.

Megs36 Fri 08-Mar-19 14:42:20

Being one of the 'older generation' who voted to join (l was young then')and now amongst the majority ? that voted to leave, I find not entirelthere's comments both ignorant and very insulting.

M0nica Fri 08-Mar-19 14:52:35

No Nanniejc1, I said nothing of the sort, although I understand that phrase was used by a Labour MP. I have never voted Labour in my life and remarks like that are not going to encourage me to do so. (I have never voted Conservative either, in case you want to accuse me of being a Conservative)

I will repeat the part of my post that made that clear, to save you having to go back to read it.
older people, generally, left school younger and started work with few education qualifications because they were not available and not needed for many jobs.

I am not making any value judgments just stating the facts of the analysis of the way people voted.

I did not think I could have put it more clearly.

starbird Fri 08-Mar-19 14:56:45

Do we know what he was teferring to? He moves in a circle of mostly well to do people and I find it hard to imagine that he could really know what the average - if there is such a thing- older person thinks about. It may or may not be Brexit, if it was, it is interesting that the places that voted remain are mostly more wealthy areas.
The fact that more older people voted shows that they do care and made the effort to vote.
Many of the ‘older generation’ are now carers for the even older, and/or for the young, and also volunteers in many other areas. They make an effort to join self help groups, and are well informed about current affairs - it would be interesting to compare what they watch/listen to compared to the middle and younger generations. Even radio 4 is now being ‘dumbed down’ to appeal to younger (under 50) listeners.
I can only think that Harry took his ideas from Meghan who was thinking of her own country!

Barmeyoldbat Fri 08-Mar-19 14:58:17

Nanniejel, 51.9% voted leave, 48.1% voted remain. , hardly a walk over. As for us stayers being stupid, we wait and see.

Megs36 Fri 08-Mar-19 14:58:51

Nanniicjl,yes in a nutshell, hooray...

Liztofriends Fri 08-Mar-19 15:00:20

Surely our care for the younger generation is shown by the thousands of hours we put in looking after our grandchildren. We don't have much of a retirement now and so we are kept up to date and do understand much of today's young people's lives.

Aepgirl Fri 08-Mar-19 15:07:42

Thank you for your comment, Chucky.

Gonegirl Fri 08-Mar-19 15:11:48

these are the young people Harry was addressing

Sounds a pretty good thing to be encouraging.

M0nica Fri 08-Mar-19 15:17:27

To be fair, I do not think that his home circumstances, however unusual necessarily mean that he cannot understand what other people, of any age think about. If we make that argument we would have to accept that nobody anywhere could have any understanding or sympathy for anyone who isn't exactly like them.

He has had lot of involvement in charities, in this country and overseas, an involvement that goes way beyond the public events and ribbon cutting. I just think this speech was a mishmash of nice sounding words and platitudes.

It has been suggested that he insisted on writing it himself rather than working with his usual speech writers, in which case I think he should go back to his speechwriters and let them put forward a speech that says something useful and coherent.

Gonegirl Fri 08-Mar-19 15:30:01

He was speaking in his role as President of the Queen's Commonwealth Trust.

www.queenscommonwealthtrust.org/projects/cama/

It didn't have a lot anything to do with us pensioners.

Gonegirl Fri 08-Mar-19 15:31:33

I don't see how any speech could be more encouraging to those young people than that one was. For heaven's sake, stop the silly nit picking.

It's not all about us. hmm

Gonegirl Fri 08-Mar-19 15:34:31

Read this, if you can be arsed. www.queenscommonwealthtrust.org/projects/

lincolnimp Fri 08-Mar-19 15:38:29

Personally I don't see anything wrong in what Harry said. Sounds like a lot of common sense to me----relating to all ages being prepared to look outside the box and be more tolerant of others.

janeainsworth Fri 08-Mar-19 15:55:46

Thank you for the links gonegirl.

Gonegirl Fri 08-Mar-19 16:08:37

[thumbs up]

minniemouse Fri 08-Mar-19 16:27:54

I really don't put any store by what the Royal Family say. They do not live in the real world. And, regardless of how touchy feely they seem, they are not, NOT, like the rest of us. Just saying smile

Orelse Fri 08-Mar-19 17:21:51

MOnica ... I voted to leave and have 2 separate degrees and other qualifications so I think you comment about education was a bit odd .
Generalisation doesn't do it for me . , ! Most of my family and friends voted out .. all of whom are well educated . Ps we are all over 65 , but feel that our country shouldn't be run by unelected people , and believe in our lawmakers and sovereignty.

M0nica Fri 08-Mar-19 17:29:29

Personal experience does not change the facts.

quizqueen Fri 08-Mar-19 18:04:57

In answer to notentirelyallhere's post,
Many people voted for Brexit because they wanted future generations to live in an independent, self governing country and not a vassal state of a corrupt and unaccountable organisation, which is what the EU has become. They didn't do it to be killjoys, stopping young people from working abroad.
As far as a university education is concerned- when only about 10% of the population undertook getting a degree, it was affordable to the country but then along comes Tony Blair, who wanted as least 50% of school leavers to go to university, regardless of their suitability and the choice of degree they took. Hence, it became unaffordable for the country to fund a free university education for all. It's not something the older generation decided to do just to be spiteful!
If the younger generation decide to spend their money on mobiles, coffees and holidays rather than saving for a home then that it is up to them. Again, not the fault of the older generation. It does seem to be the younger generation who get called snowflakes, I agree, and that is because they seem to think they should be protected from anything bad happening around but life is not is not like that and the tougher you are, the more likely you are to succeed.

I think it is a problem when a prince is seen to criticise certain groups of the population. I have read that Meghan helps him writes his speeches now and she doesn't set a very fine example of intergenerational tolerance.