Today (24 October), a man with a substantial pension and a seat in the Lords demonstrated either his ignorance of, or indifference to, values which almost all cultures understand as underpinning the cohesion of a decent society.

Michael Bichard, a cross bencher, former Permanent Secretary in the Department for Education and Employment and member of a committee studying the effect of demographic change on public services, expressed the view that retired people should undertake community work such as caring for “the very old” or risk losing part of their state pension.

Such a move, said Lord Bichard, would prevent older people becoming “a burden on the state”. That is a chilling phrase with an echo of the “useless eaters” of Nazi propaganda. I do not suggest for one moment that Lord Bichard would wish to see pensioners sent to concentration camps, but the underlying concept that economic activity is the sole measure of an individual's worth to society is inhumane and profoundly impoverished.

Over a million older people are already caring for older members of their families, saving the state a considerable amount while others serve as volunteers across a wide range of socially useful initiatives. The idea that men and women in their seventh, eighth and even ninth decades have nothing to offer by just being themselves, and require, in Bichard's sinister phrase, to be “incentivised”, is indicative of a society which so often fails to value and learn from the wisdom of its older citizens. These people, who may have worked for forty or fifty years, brought up families and ridden many of the storms still tossing those of us who are younger, have much to teach us. There can surely be few of us who have not had occasion to be grateful for insight, example and inspiration from people of pensionable age.

Many will have had hard working lives. They will have accrued neither status nor substantial pension pots. Some will have had their young lives deformed by war, want and poor health care and will now be struggling with low incomes and declining health. Modest security in their older years, paid for by taxes and National Insurance contributions, is their right. It is our duty to ensure they receive it and to speak for their dignity. A culture which displays begrudgery towards those who have made the longest contribution as they enter upon their time of increased need, should consider the simple and timeless wisdom of the fifth commandment.

Work for your pension? That’s a bit rich, my Lord

Michael Bichard, who was once one of Whitehall’s most senior civil servants, thinks that pensioners should be on workfare. He did not put it quite like that, but that is what he meant. Workfare is a system pioneered in the USA, under which people on welfare are obliged to make a contribution to society to qualify for their benefits. “Are we using all of the incentives at our disposal to encourage older people not just to be a negative burden on the state but actually be a positive part of society?” Lord Bichard asked fellow members of a committee investigating the impact on public services of an ageing population.

Saga’s boss, Dr Ros Altmann thinks that this proposal is “social engineering of a dangerous kind”. It implies, she suggested, that when you reach the recognised retirement age, “civil servants should assess you and decide whether you are fit to be assigned to do work that they decide you should do”. She added: “The idea undermines the concept of ‘volunteering’ altogether, because if you have to do it in order to get your full pension, it is just another kind of paid work.”

Four years ago, the pension arrangements of people like Lord Bichard were analysed. It was found that their average pension pot was worth just under £850,000. It’s a bit rich for him to be thinking that someone on a state pension of around £5,300 a year is a “negative burden”.

They've been getting at this for a while now. First they raised the pension age, and we all predicted that this would be the next step. Since most elderly people are quite frail and are more likely to have chronic health problems this is just sadistic really. I would say that they want to finish them off a bit quicker, but that sounds paranoid. It's inhumne however you look at it.

A top doctor in the UK has warned that NHS hospitals are using end-of-life care, “death pathways”, to help elderly patients die because they are difficult to look after and take up valuable beds; “an equivalent to euthanasia.” The “death pathways” on average bring a patient to death in 33 hours. The National Health Service (NHS) is England’s publicly funded healthcare system.

Professor Patrick Pullicino, a consultant neurologist for East Kent Hospitals and Professor of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Kent, was speaking to the Royal Society of Medicine in London.

The UK Daily Mail reported that Professor Pullicino “claimed there was often a lack of clear evidence for initiating the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), a method of looking after terminally ill patients”. Under the LCP, doctors can withdraw treatment, food and water while patients are heavily sedated.

Because elderly patients who could live longer are put on the LCP to free up beds or because they are difficult to care for, Professor Pullicino said the LCP has become an “assisted death pathway rather than a care pathway”. The Telegraph reported that Professor Pullicino believes the LCP is being used as “an equivalent to euthanasia.” 130,000 patients a year die on the LCP.

Professor Pullicino gave an example where he had personally intervened to take a patient off the LCP. A 71-year-old who was admitted to the hospital suffering from pneumonia and epilepsy was put on the LCP by a doctor on a weekend shift. Professor Pullicino successfully fought to remove the patient from the “death pathway”, and the patient’s seizures came under control and four weeks later he was discharged home to his family. The 71-year-old man lived for another 14 months before he suffered pneumonia again and was admitted to a different hospital. He was put on the LCP and died five hours later.

Next up, soylent green.

Wow.

I've heard it all now.

When was slavery abolished?

GOLDWATCH BLUES
Donovan


I went up for my interview on the fourth day of July.
First old man he questioned me until I nearly cried,
Made me fill in forms until I shook with fear
About the colour of my toilet roll and if my cousin's queer.

CHROUS:

Here's your goldwatch and the shackles for your chain
And your piece of paper to say you left here sane.
And if you've a son who wants a good career
Just get him to sign on the dotted line and work for fifty
years. CHORUS.

He asked me how many jobs I'd had before.
He nearly had a heart attack when I answered, four.
Four jobs in twenty years, oh, this can never be
We only take on men who work until they die. CHORUS.

He took me outside to where the gravestones stand in line.
This is where we bury them in quick-stone and in lime
And if you come to work for us on this you must agree,
That if you're going to die please do it during tea. CHORUS.

This story that you heard you may think rather queer
But it is the truth you'll be surprised to hear.
I did not want no job upon the board,
I just wanted to take a broom and sweep the bloody floor.
CHORUS.

I know it sounds clichéd; but people needs to wake up, like yesterday! The 'I'm alright Jack' posture won't save them from this one this time.