Jeremy Paxman says 'no votes for pensioners'

Well done. Lindylou. If you had been born to a better off family or if you'd been born a few years later you almost certainly would have done A levels and a degree straight from school - a much easier option than the OU.

Day6, don't forget that some of us didn't even get the chance to go for A levels. I left school in 1968 at the end of the 5th form. It was an excellent grammar school, I was very lucky in that respect, but only the very cream of the class were allowed to stay for 6th form, and my parents were adamant anyway that I should start to bring a wage into the family pot and they could not afford to keep me in school any more. I obtained my degree later through the OU.

It was also quite noticeable on last night's QT that one of the panelists was an inarticulate shouty man (some sort of celeb or broadcaster who I'd never heard of?) who supported Remain.

Am I the only one to suspect that this idiot was carefully chosen to discredit the Remain side by the British Brexit Corporation?

It was interesting that on last night's QT many of the young people in the audience were obviously leave voters.

Perhaps there is a bunker somewhere containing JP and the like who are engaged in putting together a smear campaign aimed at leave voters and the over sixties - a 'divide and rule' anarchic plot?

I am over 65 and voted to stay.
All of our AC voted to leave !!

Ah, well you are safe then judylow

If I remember correctly we had two voting choices. Stay or leave. Are the young angry because we were given a choice?

I'm an old person (74) who voted remain.

Let's do the comparisons are odious bit -

Students today who want us euthanised - demand en-suite facilities at Uni and can pay for them, drive cars, drink coffee at £3 a go, got into Uni via an alternative route because they didn't have A levels, wear designer clothes, don't have to listen in lectures or indeed attend lectures as all lecture notes are available on University intranet portals, they have every piece of technical gadgetry going and max out their credit cards. Many rely on parents for hand outs and lifts, most take out a loan which they will never have to repay. When earning it will seem like a tiny bit of extra tax.

They don't know they're born. We had to have at least three good A levels to go on to higher education, we got the odd postal order from home, worked our way through Uni to make ends meet, shared kitchens and bathrooms, wore extra layers and gloves to write up, by hand, assignments in our cold rooms, lived on toast, read books, lived in the library reading texts and source material, making notes and hitch-hiked home because we couldn't afford fares. Lots of hardship.

See how generalisations and comparisons mean very little really. Not everything applies. (Paxman needs to learn that.) We lived in different times. My experience is just as valid as theirs though.

One day those who blithely and without proper thought say old people ruined their lives <eye roll> will be old too. Ask them now if they'd like it when they are 60 to be denied a vote or written off as unthinking, privileged and undeserving when they too have known struggle and hardship to have lived that long.

We already have a thread regarding whether older people have anything in common with the younger generation.

It has become divisive and ends up being a Brexit squabble.

I have on social media been called a 'coffin dodger' by an 18 yr old.

As many of us mentioned on the other thread, many of us could still be here in 30 years time, when those young people will be in their 50s or 60s.

As long as I am alive and have functioning brain cells, my vote, and my life matters. I have to live in the world too.

I am so angry that older people who have contributed so much over the years and indeed raised the generation that seem to hate us (as Paxman fuels the fires) are being portrayed as they are. Many of us have known severe hardship, understand struggle, have raised families when life wasn't as fair to parents, we've worked, have been educated to a high level and have held significant positions and now as grandparents are expected to give of our time and efforts in caring for our grandchildren for free whilst the younger generation works.

The younger generation would find it very difficult to cope if we now withdrew our labour. Most of our families appreciate what we do and what we have done. We are not simpletons or old fogies leaning on sticks hanging around waiting to die. We are very much part of life and contribute to it still, in word, thought and deed. We are entitled to a vote.

Why should pensioners - many of us just as alive, as active and as alert as Paxman - put up with his intolerance and bigotry? Try substituting any other sector of society in his thinking and watch the liberal elite take umbrage on their behalf.

Disenfranchise a large part of the country because some
Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday
Believes that they didn't vote the way thinks he thinks they should have!

Well here's plan why not disenfranchise Over paid BBC broadcasters and reduce their over inflated salary and egos to boot!!

I am fed up of people blaming 'old' people for everything but I think he has a point about the benefits that all 'pensioners' get. Not everyone needs winter fuel allowance, free prescriptions and bus passes.

I may have mentioned this before

"he lamented the money given to the elderly, including the winter fuel allowance." So what does he think all the people who paid into the system should live on? We paid our NI, which was insurance so if his house burned down would he not claim on his insurance?

"his generation had enjoyed free university education and a booming jobs market. He claimed none of his friends had found it difficult to get work." Yes, one of the privileged about 5% who got free university education so no wonder none of them had difficulty getting work. What about all those who left school at 15/16 without qualifications? Clearly not in his social circle.

Let's face it, the young have always had "difficulty getting on the housing ladder" and it's not our fault!

"'The problem is that we demand things of politicians and they give it to us because they know we’ll go out and vote." Well clearly the answer is for all those poor, badly treated young people to 'get off their a...s' and vote!

Patronising prat!

My mother (83) voted remain.
My daughter (34) voted leave.

That was to MaisieD

Mixed messages I apologise. Two separate issues. Paxman said he didn't bother to take pension and fuel allowance as he didn't need it, and doesn't seem concerned that many without his advantages do. (His g grandmother was apparently refused poor relief which moved him to tears WDYTYA.) As to Brexit I believe there are many reasons that people chose to vote the way they did, poor and rich, old and young alike.

Paxman!

I’ve met Jeremy Paxton on several occasions, both professionally and socially. The man is an arrogant prat, and I’m not the only one who thought so!

Jeremy Paxman can't be serious. He's 67 for heaven's sake. Next thing we know it'll be IQ tests and only a certain level will qualify us to vote!

I thought democracy meant every adult having the right to vote. It's a slippery slope to remove that right from certain sections of society. According to Wikipedia, there are almost 100 MPs/MSPs 65 and over serving their constituents in the UK. There would have be an age limit of 59/60 for prospective MPs approaching a general election and automatic by-elections for those currently serving who reach 65 within the parliamentary term when the Paxman law becomes active. Makes a mockery of the retirement age being pushed ever higher! 68 years coming up, I think?

^ Has he forgotten his family history and great grandmother? ^

I'm not at all knowledgeable about Paxman's family history. What does this have to do with him saying that the over 65s shouldn't vote?

I'm trying very hard to ignore*, from the same post, the statement that implied that poor pensioners voted Out because they were poor... Their poverty has nothing to do with the EU...

*but not succeeding

Can Teetime compete with his 38 year old wife, though?
He's already cast off age and experience.

Well yes Elegran and if we were not allowed to vote there could easily be a vote to see us off They wouldn't find JP because Teetime will secrete him in her priest's hole!

Why not go the whole hog and send everyone to the abbatoir at 65? We would be happy to stand back and let Jeremy Paxman go first and show us how.

Well said oldwoman70
PS I have always had a strange taste in men. Happy to put JP up here in the East Midlands if he needs to escape his London life!!!
PPS I voted leave and don't mind who knows it.

Breda - even someone over the age of 65 could live for another 30 years or more (my own mother is 92 and I had a great aunt who is 103 when she died), are you suggesting they should be disenfranchised for 30 or even 40 years? The effects of the EU referendum affect everyone not just the young.

I do think that there was some merit in the argument for restricting the vote in the EU referendum to those under the age of 65 as ultimately that vote was very much about the future of the younger people in the U.K. I’m not so sure that I agree with restrictions in general or local elections though, when the decisions that government takes are more about the more pressing immediate issues.

I understand though that most people would not accept such a proposal.