Ageing of Great Britain , livre ebook

Troubador Publishing Ltd - Martin Slattery

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141 pages

English

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Great Britain is ageing, but doesn't seem to know it. Despite numerous warnings from official reports, the Government has ignored or neglected the 'car-crashes' ahead. Our Health & Social Care services, our pensions system and our housing provision are all in crisis whilst almost every family now faces the dilemma of ageing parents and boomerang children unable to leave home. Yet it doesn't have to be all doom & grey gloom. In this detailed new book, Martin Slattery seeks to show there is a "silver side" to this Age Revolution; the potential for a New Age manifesto that might propel Ageing up the political agenda, create a new Intergenerational Social Contract and force the government to plan ahead for the 100 Year Life now facing over a third of all children born today. If the Japanese, the Scandinavians and the Bolivians can do it, why not Great Britain? We owe that to our children and to the generations ahead. Welcome to the Ageing World of the 21st Century!

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Sociologie, société et politique

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Publié par	Troubador Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	20 novembre 2019
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781838597665
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	6 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0300€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Copyright © 2019 Martin Slattery

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

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ISBN 978 1838597 665

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Matador is an imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd

This book is dedicated to:
My parents, Mary & Brian, for giving me a future;
My children & grandchildren, for being the future;

My mother-in-law, Christina, for her vision of the future; and
My wife, Jacqueline, for being my future.

My Thanks too, to:
Victoria Roddam, my publishing consultant, for her professional support
and inspiring ideas on making Ageing more engaging.

Matador Publishing for making self-publishing that much
easier and more enjoyable.
Contents
Part One
Grey Britain & The Ageing Challenge Ahead

1
The Demographics of Ageing: Grey Britain and the Global World Ahead
2
The Retirement Revolution and Our Preparedness for It
3
Modern Work and the Multigenerational Workforce
4
The Pensions Revolution and the Financing of Longer Later Life
5
The Healthcare Challenge of Active Living and Eldercare in Later Life
6
Housing, Homes and the Intergenerational Housing Chain
7
Family, Marriage and the Multigenerational Beanpole
8
Sex, Sexuality and Later-Life Relationships
9
Death, Dying and the Good Death
Epilogue To Part One
Forward Planning or Wilful Neglect?

Part Two
The New Old, The New Young & The Forces for Change

10
The New Old and the New Young: The Baby Boomers and Generations X, Y and Z
11
The New Old and their Moral Mission: Ageism and Inequality
12
The New Old and Their Economic Power: The Grey Pound and the Silver Economy
13
The New Old and Their Political Power: The Grey Vote and the Silver Lobby
14
The New Old and Technological Power:New Technology and Silver Liberation

Epilogue To Part Two
Generational Power – The Next Great Step

Part Three
Towards a New Age Manifesto & theAgeless Society Ahead

15
Towards a Silver Manifesto and a New Intergenerational Social Contract
16
Towards a New Age Paradigm and an Ageless Society
Epilogue to Part Three
Unfinished Business – We’ve not even started!

Appendix A
The Ageing of the European Union
Appendix B
The Norwegian Strategy on Ageing
Bibliography
Organisational Titles & Acronyms
List Of Illustrations
Foreword
What on earth inspires someone to think that ageing is a topic of such importance that they not only write a book about it but also try to come up with a ‘skeleton’ plan (forgive the pun) and manifesto for tackling it?

Who on earth inspires someone to spend four years of their retirement researching and writing about a topic that at first glance would turn most people grey or, worse, frighten them to death (again, forgive the pun) thinking about the three Big Ds: Disability, Dementia and Death?

My family: that’s who . They were the inspiration behind this book, and they are my hope for the future, all four generations of them from one to 92.

Parents often inspire , but the inspiration from my parents, Mary and Brian, was exceptional and possibly unparalleled. They not only brought up and nurtured through the years an exceptionally large family of eight post-war baby boomers, all born between 1946 and 1964; but they also gave all of us love and a sense of family that has kept us together to this day.

Parents often inspire; mothers-in-law rarely do . They certainly don’t usually inspire reflection, research and writing on a topic like ageing, but my mother-in-law Christina did. Like my parents, Christina was an inspiring figure, a classic character from the Silent Generation, the generation that had fought for and sacrificed so much for the freedoms we now enjoy and who are now sadly dying out. Her inspiration has been hopefully captured in the background narrative to Polly, the central character in this story of ageing; but suffice to say at this stage, her self-sacrifice, her voracious appetite for fighting for better for those around her, and her wisdom in counselling the young are all features embedded throughout this narrative and within the proposed solutions in Part Three.

Grandmothers often inspire; grandchildren always do . Ultimately, this book is about the future of the young rather than the later life of the old, even the new old. My wife Jacqueline and I are fortunate enough to have an ever-expanding army of eight grandchildren, ranging from aged 20 through to toddlers, living in sunny Suffolk in the UK and noisy New Jersey in the US; a wondrous array of youngsters whose appetite for life and joy of learning is an everyday inspiration. Being a grandparent is an immense privilege and a massive antidote to any sense of depression or decline as old age kicks in. They grow so fast, they learn so quickly and they challenge so openly and so honestly that no older person can fail to be enlivened, if not rejuvenated, by their presence and their company. You simply want to do as much for them and enrich as much of their life as you can – and as much as your limbs and their parents will let you. And these personal pleasures, these social transformations, are being mirrored across the world as grandparents begin to outnumber the young and a third of all babies born today live into the 22 nd century.
After a hugely rewarding career in education as a classroom teacher, a college principal and a county officer for 14–19-year-olds’ education, I began looking for a new project in life that might make a difference. Retirement is a shock after any sort of intense and demanding working life, even if you think you’ve prepared for it. Returning back home after a life spent working across four counties in a relentless round of meetings, presentations and people ‘stops your clock’ and leaves you wondering, what next? What does life hold now and how do I organise it? Will it be as fulfilling and meaningful as work was? It certainly has been, what with the 2012 Olympics, travel across SE Asia and America, and the joys of a growing number of grandchildren in the UK and US. Ironically, though, it was the act of actually retiring that raised my consciousness about older age and the phenomenon of ageing, which then inspired my research and writing. What at first glance seemed to be a very dismal and depressing topic, quickly became a personal challenge as I gradually realised that Britain today is sleepwalking into a national crisis of biblical proportions; a crisis of ageing, the likes of which have never been seen before; a crisis of ageing that will profoundly and permanently affect every individual, every family, every community, every arm of the British welfare state from 2020 onwards as the old become nearly a third of the UK’s population by 2060. No society can ignore the fundamental implications of everybody living longer, much longer; of having nearly 20% of its population aged 65 and over; and of having more old people than young. But Britain is ignoring it, woefully; and in the case of the government, wilfully. Hence this book!
Any cursory review of the demographics for Great Britain shows that it’s an ageing society that’s becoming top-heavy with older people and bottom-light with youngsters, whether through our stagnant national birth rate or the likely cut-off of immigrants post-Brexit. This is a fundamental shift in the demography of the UK and in its social and economic structure. Yet there is no national plan for an ageing Great Britain, no n