Paxman blast for elderly lockdown moaners
JEREMY Paxman has told old people to stop moaning about lockdown restrictions because “the whole thing is being done for our benefit”.
The 70-year-old journalist and broadcaster said he had become sick of hearing fellow pensioners complain that they have been unable to go out.
He argued that it is the futures of young people that have been jeopardised.
And he even suggested that given that everyone dies anyway, younger people should not have been made to suffer from the economic downturn caused by lockdown. Writing in Saga magazine, Mr Paxman said: “Old people are always moaning. But the whole thing has been done for our benefit.
“Lockdown is not about protecting schoolchildren, who generally show as much readiness to pick up coronavirus as they do to pick their socks off the bedroom floor.”
And the notoriously grumpy personality added: “No, teenagers’ futures are being jeopardised in order that current old people have something other than Covid-19 listed on their death certificates.
“We shall all still get the certificates, which is why it seems bizarre to have brought the country to its knees. But wrinklies should perhaps be appreciative of the gesture.”
Morgan Vine, head of policy and influencing at Independent Age, the older people’s charity, said: “Creating generational divides isn’t helpful.
“Ageism is unacceptable, and generalisations about everyone over the age of 65 are not helpful. There is a big difference between a 65-year-old and a 95-year-old.”
Recent research suggests the quarantine exacerbated the UK’s loneliness problem, particularly among the elderly. A study found that lockdown has left a quarter of adults thinking they have no real friends.
Mr Paxman’s comments come after the former BBC news anchor stunned television viewers by claiming local authorities should be “taken out and shot” if they are closing up bins.
During an interview on Sky News, he said: “If people do litter, you find they will do it at any time.
“People do it because they don’t care. They don’t care about somebody else having to clear up their rubbish.
“Thirdly, if local authorities really are closing up bins, then the local authorities should be taken out and shot.”