EU research dishes the dirt on ageism

According to a survey by the European Social Survey Britain has one of the worst records in Europe on age discrimination, with nearly two out of five people claiming to have been shown a lack of respect because of how old they are. It is not very comforting to know that only Russia, Ukraine, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia have more people who feel they have been ignored or patronised because of ageism.

This conclusion results from a EU funded research project taking into account the attitudes of 55,000 people across 28 countries, which every two years charts beliefs and behaviour. This and no doubt many more snippets come from the Eurage Project.

I may be doing the researchers a great disservice but I have never been impressed with my dealing with any of the EU funded research projects. I have always felt that it was a good way of wasting a lot of money and keeping academics employed. At the end of the day you end up with results that whilst of passing interest are just that - passingly interesting. Dick Stroud