Last updated 11:44, Thursday, 28 August 2008

If old people were an ethnic minority then headlines like this one which dominated the front page of the News & Star earlier this week would be the cause of outrage.

Every left wing pressure group in the land would be up in arms. The subject would dominate every radio and television talk show. Every socially conscious organisation in the country would be called upon to mobilise.

Experts would vie to appear with Paxman and Andrew Marr to propound their theories of social exclusion.

But, of course, being old isn’t glamorous. It isn’t a cause. Pensioners, as a rule, don’t wander the inner city streets at night in gangs brand-ishing knives or start shooting each other.

They aren’t, as a rule, to be found hanging around parks and street corners drinking strong cider of an evening.

Instead they are portrayed insultingly on road signs – bent, dithering and frankly a ruddy nuisance, wanting to hold everyone up while they totter across those busy roads to get to the shops or, in former times, to the local Post Office to collect their meagre pensions.

No wonder Age Concern says this is one demeaning image that needs changing. But the way this country treats its elderly goes far deeper; is a much greater source of shame than a few road signs.

According to debt advice staff in Carlisle, there are many pensioners in North Cumbria who go without meals so that they can afford rising fuel costs.

For a lot of old folk, life in the twilight years is about choices. Choices over whether to eat or heat.

The advent of another winter is, for them, not a happy thought, particularly when fuel prices are going sky high.

Over the years there have been a handful of determined fighters for the cause of the elderly. Ex-union boss Jack Jones was one. Locally Carlisle pensioner Harry Clarke was another.

But successive governments have not listened. Old people don’t make for headline-grabbing initiatives. It’s all a bit of a joke really. A few quid for the heating at Christmas and a bus pass. That should keep them quiet.

In many countries the elderly are treated with respect. Almost honoured. Here they even get the blame for clogging up the buses.

Just imagine if we said that about an ethnic group. Virtually telling them to stop at home. Keep out of the way. Don’t annoy us by your presence. There would be hell to pay.

It’s not as if these are profligates who have wasted their lives and now expect the state to pick up the tab.

Most impoverished elderly people have worked hard and contributed to the country. My dad never took a day off in 40-odd years. But like the majority of working class people of his era, he was poorly paid and retired without any savings to cushion his old age.

Most of the country lives in a world of relative plenty which makes the comparisons even more disgraceful.

Retirement can be a time of fresh opportunity for those more fortunate financially. But for thousands of old folk, God’s waiting room is not a pleasant place.

That, in the 21st century, a newspaper has to carry a headline describing the plight of “Cold Age Pensioners” ought to shame every politician and worry every single person in the land who might one day face the heat-or-eat dilemma themselves.