Old hands the picture editors' favorite way of illustrating age

I have noticed that newspapers are increasingly using pictures of old hands to illustrate stories about older people. The first illustration is from The Times and appeared above the article revealing that local authorities are cutting £1.3 billion from funding nursing homes places and domiciliary care.

I have written about this subject so many times that I am not going to go through all of the arguments again other than to say that unless the Government ring-fences elderly care then it will always be an easy target for councils to cut. The cynic in me would say councils have to find easy budget cuts to ensure their pensions are well funded.

The second photo is from The Telegraph and is about a survey by a pensions company that reckons that two-thirds of people in managerial or professional jobs, earning over £50,000 a year, plan to defer full retirement and enter semi-retirement – whereby they keep working on a part-time basis for longer than expected.

Also, 25% of the over-50s in “middle-class jobs” are planning to delay their retirement until they are at least seventy. Nothing new in the story but it does reinforce the message that retirement for many is becoming a dim memory of something their parents did.  That said, a lot of people with the funds to retire decide not to and start a new venture.

I suppose I can understand why the photo editors select hands since they are a good indicator of age. I wonder what part of the anatomy will be used once they get bored with hands? Necks? Eyes? Lots to chose from. Dick Stroud