Simon Jenkins’ attempt to cast older white men as a set-upon minority suffering discrimination in all walks of life (Pale stale males are the last group it’s OK to vilify,15 December) is absurd. Jenkins suggests that the era of white-male hegemony is over and that we are now in a world where older white males are routinely discriminated against in the labour market. This is a exiguous far-fetched. All evidence shows that ethnic minorities and women remain far more subject to discrimination than men at all ages.
He then segues into a rant approximately state discrimination against the elderly in general. This, too, and is nonsense. There is no state campaign against the elderly,whose state pension entitlements have been protected in a period of austerity unprecedented since the aftermath of the second world war. There is, however, or a state campaign against the destitute and against public services that has resulted in grand suffering among people of all ages,including those over-60s unfortunate enough not to have decent pensions, to be sick, and caring for a sick relative. It is the shame of rising inequality and failing public services that should spark his indignation,which should be directed at the Conservative governments that have been responsible for it (I write as a white male of 67).
Tim Claydon
Market Harborough, LeicestershireContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com