Why is modern sport so unsporting?
By Tony Watts - Editor - 12/08/2010
There was an interesting letter in The Times recently, relating how the writer’s father was refusing to renew his football club season ticket – because he had been so sickened by the thuggery in the World Cup Final.
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People need people
People are not meant to lead lives like this. We are, at our deepest, most primal level, ‘tribal’. We thrive when we have each other to lean on and support. We feed off each other’s energy, love and encouragement. Mature Times editor Tony Watts asks what can be done about loneliness and isolation in our society.
If you want to make our roads safer, get gran or grandad to sit in the back during the driving test...
The argument is that older people aren’t safe drivers. Rubbish. What it means is that short-fused younger drivers get fed up because there’s someone in front of them sticking to the speed limit, or not burning rubber to get out at a busy junction. “If they’re not as fast as us,” goes their logic, “they can’t be as good as us. Stands to reason, dunnit.” Mature Times editor Tony Watts has a Jeremy Clarkson moment - in reverse.
Are universal benefits for the chop?
At this week’s Pensioners Parliament in Blackpool, Mature Times editor Tony Watts was one of the panel of people asked: “Who should pay for the economic crisis in which we find ourselves?” The answer, he fears, is that the most vulnerable older people in society could bear the brunt… unless the Pensioners Movement is prepared to man the barricades, universal benefits may be one of the first victims.
In the midst of life...
Many thanks to all those kind readers who responded to my last Senior Moment by wishing me well in my new role as a grandfather and proferring plenty of advice. Happily, all went to plan and, two days after the last edition went to bed, I was haring up the motorway to hold the latest edition to the Watts clan in my arms – all 8lb 8oz of him - and stare in wonderment at this brand new person.
A hard-headed government needed for hard-headed times
So the courting process has ended. We now know that a Centre-Right coalition will be taking us forward into the future. Critics may complain that this process has taken too long. I don’t think so. Countries around the world with ‘balanced parliaments’ (let’s stop using an negative expression that no longer applies) often take weeks to come to an accommodation. This is too important a decision to hurry.
Where now in the election battle?
So where were you when the result of the 2010 election campaign became clear? By which I mean the first minute after 10 pm when the exit poll came out with what may well prove to be an uncannily accurate assessment of the final result. Whatever happened to all-night suspense?
Has the world gone mad?
I ask this question semi-rhetorically in response to a news story that a soldier will be receiving up to £100,000 (of OUR money, in case it’s ever forgotten) after being disciplined for not appearing on parade.
Grandad, we love you
As I write this, I’m celebrating just getting that most that most wonderful of jobs - becoming a grandfather – and for the first time.
Everyone who has been in this situation will know just how exciting, and worrying, this is. It’s also an odd experience in that in my mind’s eye I can still see my daughter bouncing up and down in my arms singing along to the Ghostbusters theme, or walking the wrong way up a slide with only her nappy on. God, she’s never going to forgive me for this article.
The Personal Care at Home Bill – sitting on the fence
The government’s proposals for personal care will go ahead – if the new government implements it. That was the message from Tuesday’s enabling legislation which was passed on Tuesday evening.
The government accepted a House of Lords amendment in order to get the enabling legislation through before the general election which means that the introduction of free personal care at home for elderly and disabled people with the greatest needs is to be delayed by six months. The effect of this, as Lord Warner, a former Labour health minister who helped push for amendment, said: "We feel we have done our job. We have slowed the bill down and it will be for a new government to deal with it in a more measured way." The bill is now expected to receive royal assent before parliament is dissolved for the election.
Have we really moved on in 50 years?
It's not so long ago that we stopped capital punishment in this country. 1964 marked the last execution, although it didn't come off the statute book for another five years. At the time, it was seen (by many, if not all of us) as a move towards a more humane society.
Roll on to 2010 and (effectively) there are people, and some media, who are keen to have the principle of 'a life for a life' brought back. Not a life being taken by the State, but by anyone who feels like it. What's more, they are promoting the idea of taking the life of someone who has committed a crime at the age of ten. How so?
A modest proposal...
Nature abhors a vacuum, and so does society and all the people who live in it. Which is why as soon as one wooden-headed footballer steps out of the limelight (having won headlines for his off-pitch shenanigans rather than his prowess for club and country) another one steps into his place.
Time to stop this airbrushing of history
There are several very high profile models – no names, no pack drill – who promote beauty products with all the lines on their face taken out. What is that about? And shouldn’t someone get done under the trades description act? “I used three large tubs of this extra strength wrinkle remover and I still don’t look like that woman on the TV. And my head keeps sliding off my pillow.”
Mature Times editor questions the effect on our psyches of constantly airbrushing celebrities and models.
Pregnant in your 60s – do we have the right to decide?
The thorny subject of women in their 60s giving birth is back in the news: a London clinic has said it would be willing to give IVF to a woman of 59. "Does society have the right to decide on such an issue" asks MT editor Tony Watts.
Walking in a winter wonderland...
"How often over the years have you heard the complaint: "Ooh we don't get proper winters any more. Not like we used to, when you had to break the ice off the privy with a shovel before you could sit down." MT editor has a rant about shovelling snow, panic buying and General Election 'fever'...
