Jeremy Paxman fears the elderly are treated with ‘contempt’ in the UK and calls for us to ‘rework’ our attitudes towards ageing
- News presenter turns 70 next month and has penned an emotional piece for the over-50s magazine Saga where he is a regular columnist
- In it he warned that the elderly are being discarded by society and is urging the country to ‘rework’ how it talks about ageing
- Says that as society gets ‘wealthier and more comfortable’, it treats the elderly with contempt, rather than the respect they once received and should receive
He’s still a regular on TV and one of the most high profile figures in Britain.
But as he prepares to turn 70 next month, Jeremy Paxman has warned that the elderly are being discarded by society and is urging the country to ‘rework’ how it talks about ageing.
The University Challenge host said we no longer treat the elderly with respect but instead with ‘contempt’.
The 69-year-old’s comments come as he opened up about his own increasing frailty and detailed a fall he had in which he ‘cracked a couple of ribs’.
Jeremy Paxman is best known as the host of BBC Newsnight and University Challenge
Writing in his column for over-50s magazine Saga, Paxman said: ‘I have always found something faintly risible about those octogenarians you see rushing about in wellcushioned trainers, pretending to be half their age… and acting as if death is an optional extra on the set menu of life. It is not.
‘I was walking my dog Derek in the park the other day, and came across an enormous puddle blocking the path. As I attempted to tiptoe around the edge I slipped and fell. I cracked a couple of ribs and very painful it was, too.
‘It would not have happened 40 years ago – or, if it had, I should have picked myself up in no time. But that’s how it is.
‘As I limped home (I’m afraid the dog wasn’t the slightest bit concerned), I found myself thinking: ‘S*** happens.’
‘Any other time in life, you slip or trip or fall over. Old people ‘have a fall’.
‘In 30 years, one person in five on the planet we all share will be over 60. Personally, I shan’t be sorry to miss it, because it will then be impossible to get a seat on a train. But we need to rework how we talk about ageing.’
Paxman added that as society gets ‘wealthier and more comfortable’, it treats the elderly with contempt, rather than the respect they once received and should receive.
He continued: ‘The other day I heard someone justify the coronavirus on the grounds it will thin out the ranks of the elderly.
Journalist and broadcaster Jeremy Paxman in ‘Great Britain’s Great War’ book promo
‘We don’t tolerate sneering at women because they can’t pee as far up the wall as men. But ageing is as ineluctable as gender.’
He added: ‘As far as I can see apart from George Melly’s observation about losing his libido – ‘like being unshackled from a lunatic’ – there is little to commend the physical business of ageing.
‘There is, though, what I call the Rhett Butler dividend: you don’t have to give a damn what anyone thinks. You really don’t.’