Our Readers Say Brasso, Boxing and Batmen - my military memories from the RAF
06/01/2009
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Council housing – a passport to an easy life
One Mature Times reader calls for 'closer monitoring' for council house tenants.
'Hard times'... those were the really hard times
At the age of 72, I thought my personal story might give younger people a different perspective on modern 'hardship.'
Help to save H.M.S. Plymouth
What could be the last petition to save Ex Royal Navy boat H.M.S.Plymouth and return it to its Westcountry home has now been launched on the prime ministers website.
Eventually we all have to pay for 'ageism' handouts
There's a lot of good anti ageism stuff in Mature Times. But let's not pretend that Selina Scott challenged Channel Five so as to make an ageism statement, otherwise she would have had her day in court.
We're a nation of hypocrites
After watching all the parades and prayer this Remembrance Sunday, I'm convinced we've become a nation of hypocrites. Neither Spain, France nor Germany managed to invade us successfully, but now we have been invaded by stealth - and invited stealth at that - as well as by ever creed in creation.
How the elderly are pressurised by hard-sell charities
You might like to know how people are trained to hard-sell charities by phone to the public. I know because I tried a call-centre job which was doing exactly this. I gave it up after only five days! And even the call-centre said they had a huge turnover of people because very few can handle doing such a horrible job.
'Best Kept Secret'
'Best Kept Secret'. A contradiction, surely? This curious phrase suggests that by divulging the whereabouts and charms of a secret holiday destination, the travel writer is not to be trusted. Well, a secret is a secret!
United we could win...
Roger Redman, Vice Chairman, Taunton & Wellington Pensioners Forum, argues that by working collectively Britain’s older people could start to achieve real and positive social change.
Let's hear it for our libraries!
In the last two years 'cut backs' mean a hundred library buildings no longer function as libraries - despite Britain being almost at the bottom of the European table in reading skills, and with more and more children leaving school unable to read properly. Libraries are also repeatedly being told they are 'antiquated' and to 'smarten up their act', while at the same time being deprived of funds. Having belonged to libraries in a various towns and cities for nearly fifty years, I have seen them change - but I have never seen any sign of them becoming unpopular.
We've become a paranoid nation
Nowadays we are afraid of global warming, social and economic meltdown, terrorism, GM crops, cancer, street crime, road rage, fuel shortages, will the lights go out? - and the list goes on and on. The end is clearly nigh - so is it really worth getting up in the morning?
Winter fuel payments - thousands will lose out
Winter Fuel payments - 'is the cut off date challengable?' , asks one MT reader.
Glad tidings? Bah, humbug!
It’s upon us - that time of year again. Good will to one and all. If only...
Do we have the right to "call it a day"?
I am 73, fit, take no tablets of any sort, am not depressed, and look forward to many more good years. However when I tried to discuss the option of suicide when I am 90, 100 or whenever with a doctor, the position appeared to be that if I became mentally incapacitated, Social Services are legally able to take over my affairs and my life.
Radio station is 'calling all pensioners'
I would like to bring readers’ attention to the Deptford Action Group for the Elderly (DAGE), who have secured a special pensioners’ radio slot "Calling all pensioners" on a central London-wide radio station called Resonance 104.4FM - and also available online.
