The impact of our ageing population cannot be ignored

This is a personal gripe with zero use to your 50-plus marketing.

Today’s Guardian has an article with the above title that is all about the work of an organisation called 5050vision that has developed a plan for the North West of England to help it with the challenges of an ageing population. You can download the document that contains loads of data about ageing related issues facing this part of the UK. It is a very nice looking document. I would think it cost a few bob to produce.

Unfortunately, if I were a 50 year old living in the North West I doubt if I would take much comfort from knowing that the report recommends that the five partner organisations (Northwest Regional Development Agency, NHS North West, 4 North West, Government Office North West, DH North West) should:

• commit to the incorporation of the Framework in new Regional Strategy
• recognise the combined effect and interdependent relationships of housing, economy,
• endorse the interim arrangements proposed to allow for a leadership, governance and implementation process to be secured in order to support the delivery of the outcomes set out in the Framework and deliver stakeholder engagement (detailed in section three p. 46)

As the UK faces at least a decade of stringent cuts in public spending the chance of any of this gobbledygook ever seeing the light of day is remote – to put it mildly. This document and its jargon ridden recommendations is a microcosm of what is wrong with the UK.

A lot of no doubt well intentioned public sector workers producing acres of waffle riddled text that is all about extending and justifying a costly bureaucratic machine that delivers very little to the people who actually need assistance – in this case the 50-plus. Dick Stroud