The Ageing Population Timebomb - Myth or Fact?

They do say average life expectancy has gone up and is still going up, so there will be many more people reaching the age of 100 than there used to be.

Makes sense with the advances made in medical science and improvements in living standards.

I don't understand why we should take it personally and rage against it

How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child

whatsgoingon - well said. You'd think from reading some of the posts on here that the white people of Britain wouldn't know how to work if their lives depended on it! Oh, and we all dodge tax apparently

On a personal level, I've known good and bad in several nationalities. I've found that where you are from makes very little difference to whether or not someone is a good contributor to society.

Aka - I don't think I said it was your quote did I? You didn't state a source so if I had stated it was your comment, I would have been forgiven for doing so and without the source, we only have your word for its legitimacy.

My quote (that used the word 'notion',) was clearly stated as coming from Dr Anderson who is a senior research fellow at the Centre on Migration, Policy & Society at the University of Oxford - I'm pretty sure she will know what she's talking about

My apologies Aka - I have only just spotted your link (with thanks to mollie65) and have had a quick look (but I would take most of what is written in the Huffington Post with a pinch of salt) so it would seem to come down to a contest of who is more accurate: Oxford or London.

To state that all immigrants are better educated than the local population is stretching things a bit too far - unless they have carried out mass testing (which, as far as I know, they haven't) how can they possibly know that? Or is it an endictment against our education system that it can be taken for granted?

aka I do realise it is a recognised methodology - I did statistics as part of my degree but I do question how from a smallish sample no matter how representative it is a great leap to suggest the 'natives' are not contributing as much as the 'immigrants' when there are many more of the 'natives' to be sampled.
always take any survey with a massive dose of incredulity. they did not appear to give the numbers questioned

Aka, I remember the WRVS report coming out and I noted at the time how little it was written about in the media compared with all those reports that say we are a burden on the state.

Why do we blame politicians for this? I thought it was the media. I think we will find that the politicians won't slate us in the next year or so as we are the ones who vote. [cynical emoticon]

I read about a year ago that the theory that we will continue to live longer and longer has been challenged and may not be true.

Nonnie

Why do we blame politicians for this?

The first time I heard it used was by politicians in one of the speeches to either their party or the nation so maybe the media picked it up and ran with it - and ran with it and still run (as they tend to do - like little terriers with a bone!) with it even though it has been debunked as causal of the effect that they are claiming.

Mollie sample size 60,000.