National Service for Pensioners

I'll be glad when mine start to accept that old can be even better. They grew up surrounded by antiques and only want super-modern now.

Ah, Alison, don't tar all the younger generation with the same brush. My DS and his wife have recently moved to a larger house. They have decided to furnish it 'in period' - Edwardian - and have used Ebay and charity shops to buy old but good furniture whereas their first two homes were largely Ikea, most of which has been disposed of by way of Ebay! They are far from extravagant. Must be their upbringing! Even my student GD is very cautious to buy sensibly.

Well said Alison!

Isn't easy to tell others what to do? How can anyone of inteligence gereralise about a group of people they know nothing about?

We are the ones who took it for granted that we would have to save (is that now a dirty word) in order to buy a house. We waited (another dirty word) until we could afford it to have children and it never occurred to us that we were entitled to everything we wanted/needed and that the state whould pay.

We were happy to have hand-me-downs to furnish our homes and pass-ons for our children. No carpets, no central heating in my first house, had to wait to afford them. No washing machine, not even a fridge when we first got married, all had to be saved for before we could have them. Now how would such advice be received by the young who think they should have everthing NOW!

Well, I guess that lets me out as I pre-date the baby-boomers by a few years. However, at the CAB where I volunteer, several of us are 70+ and the majority are retirees, willingly giving up time to undergo quite rigorous training and then at least one day a week helping people to claim benefits, deal with debt, sort out housing problems...and so on. Every charity shop in town is also staffed largely by over 60s. So how dare this whipper snapper suggest that we do voluntary work. We already do our bit - and more. I wonder what he does that's socially useful.

I sometimes wonder if this is a problem of semantics and people think a "baby-boomer" is someone whose life has boomed (instead of bust?). Maybe they don't know it means the immediate post-war generation, the eldest of whom are only 65/66 and haven't had that much time for cruises yet?
Nick Hurd (Wiki again) graduated from Eton, Oxford and the Bullingdon and is Douglas Hurd's son. So he won't have a distorted view of the world then?

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??

'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....

Taxpayers'

Duck!

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

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?

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.

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!

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.

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

What a prat!

How dare he?

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

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!

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

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?

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

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 !

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'!

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

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.