Monday, September 01, 2003

Demos report - Great headlines not sure about the conclusions

Today’s papers are full of commentary about the recently published report by Demos and Age Concern. Most of it is a rehash of the Demo press release and accompanying documents, including the full report, so you might as well read these.
Demos believes that the baby boomer generation are defined by two distinct attitudes, ‘social activism’ and ‘individualism’. The challenge, they perceive, for future governments is to persuade the boomers to continue to embrace their radicalism. Some of their eye-catching recommendations are, the introduction of ‘granny crèches’, incentives for ‘elderpreneurs’ and the requirement of new housing to be ‘elder-enabled’.

My first impression, is this is the sort of report you would expect from a group of young people, with a leftist political leaning thinking what would be good for their parents.

I was particularly amused by the selection of quotes they gave, from what I guess is their idea of a representative sample of the population. There was the trade unionist, teacher, social worker, rights campaigner and somebody who runs a media and consultancy company. No factory workers, shop assistants, farmers or bus drivers. Strange that.

I am sure I will comment on this report again. It is certainly worth downloading since the base research looks to be well presented.

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