United Kingdom: Conservative Party Leader Calls for Greater Attention to Older Workers

David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative Party, called for a profound culture change in the way the United Kingdom population thinks about the elderly, backed by a revolution in social responsibility in the way we behave towards older people. Speaking at Age Concern meeting in London, he emphasised that retirement should be seen more as a gradual process:

Retirement used to be a luxury for a lucky few - a few brief years of inactivity between work and death. But now a long life after 65 is the norm. And yet we still hold on to the idea of retirement at 65. You work at full pelt right up to the wire--then you stop altogether. It doesn't make sense anymore. We need to see retirement as a process, not an event--a slope, not a cliff - then we will realise the potential of older people. Older people need to be able to shift gradually from full-time economic activity into other things.

Source: Conservative Party "Social responsibility and our ageing population" (October 23, 2006)

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