At the ripe old age (or ripe young age... depending on who you are...) of 69 (hehehe- #megalolz) Vince Cable doesn't seem to be giving up yet... damn.
Public figures getting too old seems to be a bit of a running theme recently with old Benedict retiring and the like. And now this wave of "ageism" appears to have hit, or rather not hit, parliament. Apparently old Vincey is planning on standing to be an MP next general election... in 2015... when he will be 71? AND he hasn't ruled out standing for election as leader of the lib dems in a few years... AND he seems pretty confident that he will have the energy and stamina to carry it through... like churchill and Gladstone did...
And well done to him... i guess.
I mean ageism is as bad as any other type of prejudice... and i can't argue that he shouldn't be allowed to continue with his career for as long as he can... and i can't suggest that because he is getting older, he is getting less able... BUT i do feel that he might want to move over and let some fresh blood have a shot at shaking up parliament because i just don't feel like that is happening often enough at the moment.
Fair deuce, we have currently got the youngest british Prime Minister we've had for a LONG time... and when i say long, i mean long- like longer than Vince Cable's been alive! And that is like well old, innit.
But, no offence Cameron, our current PM isn't exactly revolutionising politics or particularly supporting young people... and that, i suppose, is the major issue here: OUR POLITICIANS DO NOT CARE ENOUGH ABOUT YOUNG PEOPLE. It's all very all well complaining about older people being pushed out but they aren't exactly making room for young people to squish in. And not trusting or supporting young people in the same way that you support and trust older people is another form of ageism.
This sort of ageism is probably most obvious in the fact that 16 year olds can't vote and the fact that are only around 28 MPs under the age of 30 in our current government. awks.
The idea that the government is also not exactly nurturing a new generation of politicians with their terrible education policy, raising of tuition fees and the acceptance of the bad press that young people get is not helping either!! Less young people are going to be willing or able to get the qualifications they need to get into politics and that means that we are set to have a rapidly ageing parliament for the foreseeable future. Dear god- we are doomed.
So Vince, It's not that i want you to leave (although...), it's just that i want you to leave space for someone a little bit younger... and that's not because i prefer younger people (although...) or because i think they make better politicians, it's just that we need some new ideas, new minds, new revolutionaries and, as far as i can tell, we can best get that from young people. Plus we need a better range of people in parliament- it needs to be diverse to represent our diverse society- and that range includes women, men, the old and the young.
And yes, Cable, Churchill and Gladstone did serve as PM in their 70s and 80s BUT that doesn't mean that we couldn't have a PM in the future who was closer to 18 than 80- maybe, say, 30-something??
(tip) So can we please stop complaining about back ache and ageism when you are crushing the education system, raising tuition fees and perpetuating stereotypes of young people? Ok? Ok. That's a deal then? Stop mucking your young people, and our future government, up. NOW.
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