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The following “simple story” is a response I gave to an article in the Daily Telegraph written by some lady from Age Concern or some similar type of muddle class crap organization. Now am I just being a “grumpy old git” in reply to some lady who apparently wishes all us old chaps well or, am I making a serious point ? Judge it for yourself.

Although I am sure that Emma Soames is a very nice person, I am not sure that she understands the basic issues, wanting to be helpful is not the same as providing appropriate help.

On Working When Old

From my personal experience of the “fellow travellers” in my age group, those of us who want and can, desire to continue working in some capacity and continuing to make a “contribution”, do not require “age related legislation” to enforce some pathetic kind of ‘Right’ – we just don’t need it. One of the things I have most admired but now is threatened by the Visigoths in the House of Commons, is the House of Lords made up mainly of people who have made a contribution to the British way of life and wish to continue making some kind of contribution.

Yes We Are Now Old but then… you too shall be, eventually

But that does not mean that we should be deprived of our dignity, our ability to be able to do “something” to contribute to the society we live in today, the society that we contributed to building in our youth even if and especially if, we made a bit of a cods up of it. For Heaven’s sake, we don’t need Parliament to pass legislation and impose ‘rules’ upon giving us a job – oh do f**k off !

A Simple Story

“I am 62, 4 years ago I moved to Somerset to look after my aged parents now, I have just my Mother left who will shortly be 88 but, in declining health. Let us say next year when I will be 63 my Mother passes on, I will need financially and indeed would want to go back to work. Of course at such an age, getting a job doing what I’m really good at, being an IT Project Manager who can deliver projects on time and to budget is likely to be next to impossible because the Recruitment Agencies will never put you forward.

I am opposed on principle to “anti-discriminatory” legislation because it is daft. As a former colleague of mine, a black Englishman once remarked, “I’ve been turned down for many jobs but never been fortunate enough to be told that it was because I was black. Too qualified, not qualified enough for the role…”

The reality is that legislation is a very poor and inefficient tool when what you really want to do is change attitudes. One decent and successful TV series that portrays a particular social group in an empathetic light can achieve far more to change attitudes than any Act of Parliament will.

I do not resent the fact that an IT Manager of 37 would find the whole idea of me as being “far too old” to even give me an interview, as teenagers I suspect that we all thought that 37 was probably close to having one foot in the grave already, it is the way it is. I don’t want a job just to fill someone’s “employment quota” of so many disabled, ethnic minorities, gay/lesbian and old gits, there is no dignity in that for anyone. I want the job because I can do it and am worth my pay cheque to my employer not as a device by central government to move people from the benefits system and lumbering some poor employer with the cost instead.

Who knows what my future will be but I am working towards my own little business where I can sell pictures derived from my photography which would be enjoyable for me to make work financially. I don’t need big bucks but I don’t want handouts from the State and I’m not interested in more crap age related legislation, whatever next on the anti-discriminatory band wagon? People with wooden legs, ugly people, fat people, politicians ?”