Jeremy Paxman says 'no votes for pensioners'

If the story is true, and as it is in the Daily Mail I have my doubts about its validity, I’m afraid Jeremy Paxman is talking from his extremely privileged position as a wealthy broadcaster. Maybe if the ‘London set’ had experienced the effects of mass immigration in their lofty towers, they would begin to understand one of the main concerns people who voted for Brexit had. If his job was being paid less, if he couldn’t understand what people were saying in his own neighbourhood, if his children’s education was
suffering because money was having to be spent on classroom help to support children with non English speaking backgrounds, if he couldn’t get an appointment to see a GP because the population of the town had grown so much but the services for the new population had remained the same, then maybe, just maybe he’d have a better idea of why the referendum went the way it did. As someone who voted against Brexit, and someone who is certainly over 65; I think Paxman’s comments are stereotypical of his social class.

yawn.
Grannygranby that is probably just how we should be treating Paxman and his ideas.

Sorry NO!
My post wasn't clear was it!

5% went to university and got free higher education
49% go to university now - not free and probably unaffordable for the nation. We need more practical apprenticeships.

It’s a double whammy- daily mail and paxman thinking he can outdo daily mail in a reactionary post that will hit daily mail readers most...yawn.
Older people should be respected for their wisdom. Even so two thirds were Brexit voters. But then you could say the young were too idle to vote. Which is the best argument for a second referendum perhaps they will get off their backsides this time. This is coming from a 72 year old who voted to stay in the EU because I am not stupid and don’t believe in all the rubbish espoused by mogg, Johnston, farage et al. If I had any doubts about the EU and how a lot had to be fixed I only had to look at the Leavers. That should have made anyone vote to stay in. And you stay round the table to fix things. Paxman is just being a knob head.
We get the lowest pensions than any other country in Europe. If people follow Arch Brexiteers like Rees Mogg it will be a faster race to the bottom. Don’t forget young people will get old it is up to us they get s fair compassionate deal in the future. The last thing I did or thought of when voting was myself. You vote for the greater good and what is civilised and fair and tight. The EU might be seen as a cumbersome great bureaucracy but it is transparent and utterly accountable despite what the right wing say. I intend to be around for decades to come and will fight every nasty selfish thing from my neighbourhood to the planet. It’s what we’re good for.

Jalima1108 free education including college and university
For about 5% of school leavers rather than the 49% now
Sorry NO! No one gets free education post18 now. And actually those who could afford to pay to support their children in the past did so. Grants supported those who were from the poorest families.. It is also a fact that the present loans system will probably cost more in admin, and having to write off loans than supporting only the poorest would ever have.

Some people have always been priced out of buying wherever and whenever though - otherwise there would never be need for any social housing.
no social housing - there are over 4 million social housing homes in the UK, that is not to say that we do not need more but it is wrong to say that is none.
Between 2001 and 2010, an average of 144,000 new homes were completed annually: 100,000 fewer per year than in the 1970s. For housebuilding to match future need, it must increase in most parts of the country; this is particularly acute in London. Projections suggest that at least 227,000 new households will be formed each year between 2011 and 2021. This is substantially higher than the annual average of 166,000 extra homes inEngland over the last 10 years
From a report by the National Audit Office.

the biggest social housing expansion in history,
Desperately needed as so many houses had been bombed.

privatised healthcare
Still free at the point of delivery

free education including college and university
For about 5% of school leavers rather than the 49% now.

schools asking parents for contributions
There have been PTAs raising funds for years and I remember that we had to buy our own school textbooks in the 1950s and 1960s whereas they were provided free for my DC in the 1980s and 1990s. I don't know the situation now.

I'm not saying things are better or worse, just that times change, we should all be aware that society is not always just and fair as we may know from our own experiences and we do our best with the hand we are dealt at any one time. I think, that as a general rule, most older people think very carefully before they vote and should not be written off as 'spoilt children'.
Having experienced a lot of changes in our lifetimes so far, some good, some not, then I cannot see any justification for disenfranchising us.

If there is a spoilt child could it be Paxman with his 'Look at Me' cries for publicity?

GrannyParker the poverty of post war Britain included free healthcare, free education including college and university, the biggest social housing expansion in history, and free nurseries,(I went to one 1948) free school milk, free school meals including in holidays for the poorest . Now we have prescription charges, privatised healthcare, no social housing, schools asking parents for contributions, massive debts for students, young people on zero hours contracts and areas where people are simply priced out of buying. Things have improved haven't they!

The population voted out because the young people didn't get out & vote to stay in. Not our fault - & a lot of oldies voted to stay in too - Paxman has too much time on his hands methinks

I've seen similar views to Paxman's aired on gransnet.
It seems the the in thing to state that the future only belongs to the young.
My predictive text wrote that the 'futon' belongs to them!

It seems to suit the agenda of some to blame the older generation for the difficulties of the young. Someone needs to remind Paxman and co. That age is a protected category under the discrimination laws, some commentators seem to forget that.

As someone born into the poverty of post war Britain I get irritated at how easy I get told we had it, did we get tax credits, free child care hours, in work benefits, a free breakfast at school, help to buy, maternity leave, paid or not, And we certainly didn’t get the option of not working.

If we got a mortgage after years of doing without to save, we ended up with interest rates in double figures, and don’t get me started on having a young baby during the winter of discontent, with only 4 days wages most weeks, power cuts etc.

I do sympathise with young people struggling to get themselves established, but it isn’t the fault of the older generations, and it’s never been easy.

If they exempt me from paying tax I will happily give up my right to vote. And given the privacy of the voting booth they only assume the demographic of voters who voted in any given way. I know as many younger people who voted leave as older people who voted stay. The difference is, some of the young ones wouldn’t admit it, such is the name calling, and outright bullying some of them saw.

As for looking forward to the day the over 65 generation are dead and gone, they shouldn’t hold their breath, I for one won’t go any time soon, and how nice for their grandparents to hear how the young members of their family are looking forward to the day they die.

Everyone over 18 living in this country did not have the right to vote, including millions who had lived here for years, working, paying taxes and contributing in many ways.

I am over 80 and thought I really should not have voted in the Referendum but remembered the Suffragettes and did vote. But I wont live to see the benefits or not as the case may be, and still think I should not have voted. Ordinary elections are different.

As a democratic country everyone over 18 had the chance to vote. We voted to leave, end of story. People need to stop throwing their dummies out of their prams

Of course this is a Daily Mail story, taking odd sentences out of context and adding inflamatory spin. Nothing like controversy and setting people against each other to sell papers. The media has a lot to answer for in making our country a much less pleasant place than it would be if they were not goading people. It is actually true more older people than young people voted Brexit, its not possible to dodge the hard facts, but it hardly therefore follows we should disenfranchise that section of the electorate! I just see Brexit as a very clever con trick where a small number of rich and clever people, like Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson manipulated large swathes of the population into believing things that were not true.

Well, what a prize idiot Jeremy Paxman is (I thought he was educated) He is perfectly entitled to an opinion. However I find his moralising on his generation disgusting. He obviously doesn't live the life that many people have in this wonderful country called England. I am 62 years old, have worked for 45 years and am still working, and in March I, like so many other women would have been due to receive my state pension in March, and now this will not happen until I am 66.
So Jeremy Paxman I am pleased you can refuse your state pension and fuel allowance. Good for you, but you might need to rethink how this country has sailed many of your generation down the river, and I am definitely not a spoilt woman, just one who is seeing how values have been lost in this country.

Oh for goodness sake. Anyway the women's movement had other aims as well, the proper care and support of poor women and children, the abolition of sweated labour and equal pay for equal work amongst them. We haven't done too well on any of those lately. Many of the suffragettes would wonder what women have done with their vote.

I much preferred Bamber Gascoigne as quizmaster on University Challenge than the irritable, impatient Paxman.

One hundred years ago, women fought hard to get the vote. I don't think women of 65 and over today would just lie down and have it taken from them without a fight.

I think JP is just feeling a bit sorry for himself and seeking return to limelight 'celebrity' aura. If we just ignore him hopefully he'll go away. After all some of us are guilty of adulating these individuals which makes them think they are special in the first place. As for TC well, I've seen him on another programme comparatively regularly and he is decidedly informed and has a very interesting viewpoint. Unfortunately his passion overtakes him and he becomes shouty and aggressive and often results in losing peoples' interest because of his lack of self control. Pity, but there y'go.

Paxo is morphing into John Humphreys - two grumpy old men together.

Yeah, give 'em their own slot on R4Extra (preferably at around 2am) where they can witter and whine to their hearts content and we don't have to listen......

Silly suggestion. It's not like everyone over 65 voted "the wrong way". We are a mixed bunch just like every age group. I'd have said "silly man" except he's not silly at all, like all people in the media and showbiz he knows exactly how to keep himself in the public eye. Usually when someone in showbiz says or does something stupid to get talked about it's because they have a show coming up or a book coming out.

book, not bok!

Do you mean he is becoming bombastic and verbous
A good choice of words Gracesgran, although the becoming could be superfluous.

I agree with lots of points in this thread - ie has he got a bok coming out, is he missing the limelight as some people cannot bear to be overlookeed and he would seem to be one of them. Yes, he is one of the privileged 'elite' and is perfectly entitled to refuse his WFA and pension. However, I think he would be better taking them and giving them to a worthy charity, perhaps one which may help old people who are living in poverty?

Didn't the Nazi regime disenfranchise Jews in 1935? Therefore has Paxman nailed his colours to the mast in suggesting a whole swathe of citizens with a wealth of experience be disenfranchised?

Sorry didn't address the point of the thread. We have earned our vote, we have experience of left and right governments, we have learned moderation and thought before action unlike the heady impetuousness of our youth.
Trisher, The less than favourable change in circumstance for our younger people has happened since 1973 when we joined the EU.

Remain campaigners very cleverly suggested that those with a degree would vote to remain, I imagine this swung a lot of naïve young voters who didn't want to appear 'unintelligent'.
We were living in France at the time of the referendum, I belonged to a club of around 100 members, 50 being British and within the 15 year eligibility to vote criteria, all pensioners. Only two of us voted to leave. Some of the remainers became downright nasty because 'we could lose our pensions and healthcare rights', others quietly admitted to voting to remain for the same reason but admitted that if they lived in the UK they would have voted to leave. I would think that most Brits abroad followed the same pattern. Take out the selfish expat vote and the leave vote percentage would be even stronger.
My rather long winded point being that many people on the remain side voted for self rather than country.
This constant attempt by remainers to pit young against old is part of the same divide and conquer tactic used by remainers as the degree and no degree suggesting intelligence and lack of it can be measured by a degree.
None of the above is well put but I have to go out for the day and want to get my two pennyworth in.