National Service for Pensioners

Tell you what We are sure not bored in retirement , it"s great , lovely times together before we had the children plus now we have money to indulge ourselves .. "baby boomers , whey hey "!!! "Seniors" !!!! xxx

Think if we all email Lord W with a list of what we have done /do and invite him to respond it might be interesting.

He does sound a bit of a prat I must admit.

My thoughts entirely, POGS. We should invite him to one of our webchats!

I have just read the actual article (always a good idea) and it was Nick Hurt who suggested "the baby boom generation should volunteer when they retire instead of spending all their free time playing golf"

"However, Lord Wei warned that a moralising “nanny state” approach would fail with the consumer-minded generation born in the post-War baby boom years.

“Baby boomers are the youngest older generation we have ever seen,” he said. “They have a lot of things they want to do. How can we support them to live the life that they dreamed of while at the same time connect them with opportunities that can help all of us?

“They are not into morality, they’re not into duty. They are into purpose and meaning and enjoying life. "

Lord Wei seems to be advocating setting up a system to help pass on the fruits of older people's experience to those starting out, as often happens informally as it is. I don't get the impression that he is grudging them enjoying their retirement.

He still has a misguided view if he believes morality and a sense of duty are not chacteristic of this generation. I would love to have a conversation with him to find out where he has got this view from.

i suspect he may have meant that upbraiding them for not being moral and dutiful enough to "contribute to society" was not the best way to tempt then into a scheme for youngies to tap their experience. If so, he was right. We contribute a great deal to society.

They would get much further by saying something on the lines of "These youngsters desperately need you. Can you help?" We are accustomed to responding to that kind of plea.

Elegran I did quote accurately from the article and did mention that it was Nick Hurd who made the comment about golf. I also asked if anyone had any idea what the minister for civil society (Nick Hurd) was for? Civil society as opposed to what?

Typo for "civic" if they were thinking of community matters? He certainly is no good at being civil to the people whose help he is seeking.

Sorry, absent I did not see your mention of Nick Hurd and the golf. What I noticed were a lot of people who thought the whole scheme was Lord Wei's, while my impression was that he agreed that it was basically a good idea for both aged mentors and young mentees(?), but warned that shoving people into it on a guilt trip was not.

He is very young.

Definitely Civil Society:

Nick Hurd, Minister for Civil Society
Nick Hurd is the Member of Parliament for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner in Middlesex.
He leads on:

•Big Society agenda
•Charities
•Volunteering
•Social Enterprise

So there you go.... I think this was Lord Wei idea though wasn't it? As I said back on page one, the idea of mentors is good, the political rhetoric (if the newspaper report is an accurate reflection of what he said) is appalling.

I still want to know what is civil society? What other sorts of society do we have?

I think a proper definition of the Big Society might also be taxing for its proponents.

Rude?

And yes Lord Wei is very young, but he has been given a peerage to advance his cause; it might be reasonable to expect him to make his point without causing offence to the people he is asking for help.

Quite a large "own goal' it would appear

Elegran's post was spot on. Nick Hurd suggested that pensioners should volunteer last year - Lord Wei is establishing a pilot proect to develop the 'national retirement service' concept.
Whilst Nick Hurd's comment about pensioners spending all their time playing golf may have caused offence, I thought Lord Wei spoke sense.

Excuse me Lord Wei but I am only partly retired - at nearly 68 I'm still working 2 days a week. So I am contributing to society. Also I have been working since I started nursing when I was 17 years old, other then a few gaps [to have my children] I have worked ever since. I'd love a cruise. Pay for it and you can bother me all you like - I'll be too relaxed to listen. I have never collect unemployment or any other sort of benefit. As whenim64 says it's the youngsters playing golf, old people can't afford the green fees. What a cheek, why shouldn't people who have worked hard all their lives have some fun what an a****hole.

by the way whenim64 the BBC have stolen your name as there is a programme coming on called whenim65. Sue them

Well I find, "they are not into morality, they’re not into duty" offensive, especially given the history of his commitment to his post.

Calm down, dorsetpennt - apparently the scheme is only targeting those pensioners between the ages of 55 and 65, so you're safe!

dorsetim the same age and I'm still working four days a week. I have never claimed unemployment or sickness benefits either.

dorset if I thought I could wring a penny out of the BBC I wouldn't hesitate, but they might just call Paul McCartney as a witness against me. I wouldn't like that!!

Thank you Anagram You have read and interpreted it the same way I did.

Nick Hurt suggested the scheme and sneered at the oldies for playing golf all the time

Lord Wei seems to be charged with the nitty gritty of implementing it, poor chap, and getting all the flak. He did not say that we do nothing for anyone else because we are not into"morality or duty" What he said was that using the "no morality or duty" stick to beat us into volunteering was not likely to work.

I had a good rant though - I love ranting!!

I posted this from a Guardian article of March 2011 on page 2 of this thread, but here it is again:
"It could become the allegory of the "big society" age. The man appointed by the prime minister to kickstart a revolution in citizen activism is to scale back his hours after discovering that working for free three days a week is incompatible with "having a life".
Lord Wei of Shoreditch, who was given a Tory peerage last year and a desk in the Cabinet Office as the "big society tsar", is to reduce his hours on the project from three days a week to two, to allow him to see his family more and to take on other jobs to pay the bills."

I hardly think "poor chap" is the phrase that springs to mind, Elegran.