The War on the Old

It is estimated that by 2020, one in five Britons will be pensioners and living a longer retirement than ever before. 'A good thing', politicians add, through gritted teeth. The truth is that for them it is a damned inconvenient thing. An attitude is developing which regards 'the old' as not a tribute to the better life Britain now provides for its population but a social problem: something that must be 'solved'. John Sutherland (age 77, and feeling keenly what he writes about) examines this intergenerational conflict as a new kind of 'war' in which institutional neglect and universal indifference to the old has reached aggressive, and routinely lethal, levels.