Paxman’s stand-up comedy debut call for euthanasia angers elderly
JEREMY Paxman has angered the elderly after suggesting during his stand-up comedy debut that euthanasia clinics should be set up on every street corner.
The former Newsnight host made the controversial comment during a warm-up gig for his new Edinburgh Fringe show at an Islington theatre last night.
The 64-year-old qualifies for his own pension next year, but the London Evening Standard newspaper reported that he said on stage: “The dislike of old people – I share this prejudice despite almost being one myself. The problem with old people is they are bloody everywhere. You cannot get on a train or go to a country pub. They are all full of old people.
“Through no fault of their own, they believe the state owes them a living. They are under the illusion they have paid to a pension fund all their lives. But they haven’t.”
He went on to blame the government, saying: “Successive governments have comprehensively mismanaged the whole pension arrangements in this country. Their pensions are being paid out of what you earn. So we all have to keep working so they can stay in that state of euphoria.
“I would like to invite you all to join my crowd-funded project for franchises of Dignitas clinics. We will have them on every street corner. It would be rather like Sweeney Todd’s pie shop and will be disguised as tea shops. You will take Aunty Doris there and drop her off and she will say ‘see you next Tuesday’ and you’ll say ‘probably’.”
Dignitas is an organisation in Switzerland which assists people in taking their own lives when they have a terminal or severe mental or physical illness.
Pensioner groups have spoken out against the journalist’s comments, slamming them as “inconsiderate” and “unjust”.
Neil White, director of Southwark Pensioners Centre, said: “A lot of people have paid into this country through many decades of their lives and everyone has the right to pay into it and later withdraw a pension.
“The older generation are the ones who fought for our rights and our dignity as a country. “They’re the generations who went through the wars and saw the roots of the NHS, they are who we should honour and respect.