Old timers boozing themslves into oblivion British old timers are eschewing the delights of a nice cup of tea in favour of a drop of the hard stuff, an alcohol abuse expert has claimed. Dr Peter Rice has dubbed the binge-drinking grey panthers "Saga Louts", the Evening Standard reports, and warns that "drink problems in the over 65s are on the increase". Accordingly, he …
a story made up to fit a phrase.
The population are getting older so more pensioners will be drinking.
The streets are hardly appealing for old timers to take a stroll on are they?
Amazing that someone comes up with a phrase like that, only to say that the subjects aren't behaving in the way the label suggests. Genius!
Probably came up with 'Saga Lout' on a drinking binge, pondering their own old age......
I echo Patch Tuesday's comment and I'd like to add one of my own.
"because of the health implications it is also a serious (phenomenon)" For over 65's in the UK? I sure hope they've got private health insurance because the prospects for the retired, with health problems, on the NHS aren't good. Quoth Niel Kinnock, "Don't get old, don't get ill."
a hundred or so years ago most of them would already be dead.
more nanny culture bulls--t
why the hell shouldn't they spend the last years of their life drunk, miserable, and watching rubbish tv - just like the rest of us go through our whole lives, and I suspect just how they've lead their whole life.
The do gooding life fiddlers should just sod off.
Has anybody noticed that since the smoking ban was passed, there has been a rise in studies, reports and articles howling away about how bad alcohol is, how useless we are at moderating it and how the law will have to step in to ban/raise the price/demonise it?
Lovely, we'll all be sitting in our smoke and alcohol free pubs in five years time sipping jasmine tea and watching hordes of hoodies shoot each other just outside the windows.
God, the establishment is fscked up, but the public is even dafter. Go on you sheep, let 'em do it!
Quite frankly, it's not bulls..t that drinking kills.. But so does old age.. Take your choice, drink yourself to oblivion and die a few years younger, or don't drink, get altzheimers, or arthritis or a miriad of other horrible things that happen to us when we're old, live a few years in an old peoples home feeling lonely and miserable watching the world go by..
Come on, old people have earned the right to choose the easier way out.. Personally, the moment someone tells me that I have to retire, I'm gonna crack open the gin and start smoking cannibis, 'cos anything has to be better than having no purpose to life and sitting back and watching your body go into slow decline.. You'll find me sitting in the corner of the old people's home giggling silly to myself and anyone that will listen.. An yes, I do know what it's like to be a relative of someone who died of lung cancer, my mum did, I'd much rather she'd kicked the bucket while she was pissed or stoned.. And I'm sure she would have too!
You work all your life, pay your dues and this is how you get treated? Scorned and called a lout for enjoying a nice drink in the comfort of your own home for which you worked your fingers to the bone both ways uphill in the snow. This is an injustice, a travesty, and this doctor should be stripped of his qualifications and forever banned from making public statements.
So... they're not causing any immediate problems for anyone else. (Unlike a disturbingly large proportion of drinkers 14-49...)
If we believe the medics they'll die earlier, thus proving less of a burden on the pension system and also freeing up their housing for use by younger generations.
Asssuming the taxation structure is set up correctly, the tax they pay on their alcohol should fund their increased requirement for medical treatment, that is unless as "affluent" citizens they don't already have private medical insurance.
(And is dying in late '60s of liver-related disorder that much more expensive than dying later of some other disease, plus all the extra checkups and medication required over that extended lifespan?)
Remind me again what the actual *problem* is, other than someone still being able to exercise some form of free, informed choice?
One down side to the smoking ban is that a lot of older people who would go down to the local pub to see their friends and have a pint and a smoke, no longer go.
They cant smoke in the pub so they stay at home and a huge social aspect of their lives has been removed.
For many, it was the only reason they really had to go out every day, and its been taken away.
Yes, of course they could go and stand outside like the younger people do, but its changed the whole environment for them, so they don't.
And as much as I am personally enjoying the smoking ban, I think that this is a real shame and is also a reason why many older people are choosing to stay home and drink more than they would if they were going out and seeing their friends more.
:(
Spike, I think your comment is a bit patronising - I would guess you are under 40.
as one of the "older people" ( > 50) I would say that smoking in pubs has kept as many older people away as it has attracted, maybe more. Naturally, they are not going to start going to the pub the day after the ban came in, but I don't think the pubs are going to be seeing their old regulars staying away in droves either. I am sure some miserable old buggers will complain about it, but then some people are only happy when they are miserable.
My parents were both heavy smokers. (20/day) My father gave up after his heart attack, but still spent his last year on oxygen, and my mother died of a smoking related heart attack last year. Neither went to the pub, because they couldn't stand the smoky atmosphere, the same reason I and my non-smoking wife didn't like going. I think the smoking ban is irrelevant here, and certainly non-causal.
Matt Kimber has the right idea, though it is a little harsh in parts; I am not sure I like over 65s being referred to as they/them - this assumes older people aren't like "Us". It is our choice (I include myself as I am much closer to retirement than school leaving) how we spend our money, and how we cope with the pressures of modern life.
I for one can't wait until I can afford to retire (70+ probably after being shafted over my pension for the last 40 years) and sit in the garden "sensibly" drinking a glass or two of wine while reading El Reg on my laptop.
Dr Peter Rice - sod off you whippersnapper, don't disturb your elders and betters when they are drinking.
Voluntarily putting oneself into a drunken stupor for no particular reason doesn't worry me since it sounds like a classic application of free will. What bothers me is the unavoidable rise in the usage of alcohol and other stupefacients as people lose (or never get) healthcare coverage and therefore the ability to get treatment and/or carefully prescribed painkillers adjusted to individual needs.
I used to look at liquor stores as dens of iniquity, but now I look at them as dens of inequality. Can't afford to see Dr. Brown? Then try Dr. Beam or Dr. Walker or, as the Beatles suggested, Dr. Robert.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
