Quit dumping on older people, we’re giving back to our communities | Letters
Phillip Inman’s got me bang to rights (Can a nation in crisis rely on the baby boomer generation to step up? I think the UK is about to find out, 21 August),Born in 1953, passed the 11-plus, joined the 8% who went to university and spent a lifetime in white-collar jobs that paid well enough for housing and pensions,Not all smooth sailing – four or five redundancies – but each came with a lump sum and a decent job soon after,And I was a basic rate taxpayer for all but a few years,Now I’ve got assets far beyond my needs, and children who don’t need my money.
But Inman misses why many of us hold on to what we have: we’ve seen decades of social care failure and want to ensure that we can afford the eye-watering costs ahead.The housing market doesn’t help – ageing households face an archaic property-exchange system.We tackled it when we had to, but there’s no urgency now.And the idea that the private sector will provide? Not when Guardian columns are full of service-charge horror stories.Why dive into shark-infested waters?Every age group votes in their self-interest, not just the old.
Since 1974, none of my votes were cast for personal gain.Mortgage tax relief, bus pass, triple lock – grateful, yes, but they didn’t sway me.And if they’re taken away, I won’t vote out of spite.It’s older generations who still give time to the community.We’re no longer a clubbable society – working men’s clubs, political parties and professional associations are collapsing.
People in their 30s to 50s aren’t stepping up when boomers step down.Yet Inman expects us to act collectively and patriotically.By all means, pluck my feathers – but do it in such a way that I won’t squeal.Ged ParkerWashington, Tyne and Wear Phillip Inman is correct that the over-65s own a disproportionate share of family homes, but his attack on them otherwise is rather absurd.One of the main reasons there is a housing shortage is Margaret Thatcher’s misguided selling-off of council houses that were never replaced.
As he points out, many retired people would like to move, but there is a severe shortage of smaller homes, and many people, rightly, don’t want to move a long way from where they live,Inman should quit dumping on seniors and put the blame for the housing crisis where it mostly belongs – on the UK’s complete failure for five decades to invest in building affordable housing,But his most absurd claim is that boomers should give “more of their time to local communities rather than jetting off on several holidays a year”,First, older people do take holidays, but it is families with children who take the most holidays every year,Second, boomers are the most active volunteer sector in the UK, with 58% of those aged 65 to 74 volunteering in 2023-24.
Retirees are helping run food banks, libraries, refugee centres, hospitals, charity shops and environmental groups, saving the public sector billions every year.We should be thanking them for their service.Jean McKendreeWestow, North Yorkshire When I worked, and I worked for 50 years, I would have been happy with a tiny living space as I spent all my time working.Now that I’m retired, I have very little money (no final salary-based pension and holidays for me), so I need a garden and space for my hobbies, and to accommodate my grandchildren to allow my daughter to work.Why do people assume that old people need a tiny space? I need space to fill my time and keep healthy in mind and body.
Tiny spaces would mean endless daytime TV for me; I’d rather die,Mary StrodeGlasgow Philip Inman has hit the nail exactly,Where do boomers downsize to? Certainly not to one of the plethora of two-bed flats with tiny balconies,It isn’t just the family house that he is asking us to give up, but our gardens too,One of the real pleasures of retirement is having time to garden.
It also keeps me fit,I am trying to downsize,But if I want a garden, I have to move into a family house, albeit perhaps a smaller one,Mary BoltonLondon I read the replies to Phillip Inman’s piece on boomer downsizing (Letters, 22 August; Letters, 26 August),Here in the US, there is the same problem, but with much more clarity.
Boomers who tire of rattling around in a 2,500-plus sq ft house and paying the taxes on the same (could be $8,000 or more a year) could move to the mixed-use/multi-family developments that they have voted against for the past 20 to 30 years.If they had permitted some of that to be built, they could continue to live in the neighbourhoods they have grown old in, with the same access to healthcare, shops, restaurants etc as before.But they chose to deny young people or simply those who didn’t want a house and yard that choice.I hope they are happy with the consequences of that choice.Paul Beard Seattle, Washington, US
Trump accused of using mortgage fraud allegations as ‘weapon of choice’ to attack Fed
Donald Trump has been accused of wielding unconfirmed allegations of mortgage fraud as his “weapon of choice” to attack the Federal Reserve’s independence, as a governor at the central bank sues the president over his bid to fire her.In court on Friday, lawyers for Lisa Cook argued she was fired without the notice or “cause” required to remove a Fed governor. Cook learned of her removal from the board via a post on social media, they said.US district judge Jia Cobb is overseeing the case, which is widely expected to be ultimately decided by the supreme court. While it makes it way through the courts, Cook is seeking a temporary restraining order against Trump’s attempt to “immediately” dismiss her from the Fed’s board
Sir Graham Day obituary
Sir Graham Day, who has died aged 92, was a tough Nova Scotian with a strong sense of public duty who struggled to “save the saveable” from the wreck of two of the UK’s lame duck industries, shipbuilding and motor manufacture. Described by Margaret Thatcher as a “superb chairman”, he took the helm at five major British companies, including British Shipbuilders and British Leyland, before returning to business and academia in his native Canada.In 1970, as an international troubleshooter for the transportation company Canadian Pacific, he found himself supervising the delayed completion of two ships at the strike-torn Cammell Laird shipyard on Merseyside. Day noticed that the pickets went home at night, so he hired tugs and had the ships towed away for completion in Ireland.The Laird group was so impressed that it offered Day the chief executive’s job
Doctors develop AI stethoscope that can detect major heart conditions in 15 seconds
Doctors have successfully developed an artificial intelligence-led stethoscope that can detect three heart conditions in 15 seconds.Invented in 1816, the traditional stethoscope – used to listen to sounds within the body – has been a vital part of every medic’s toolkit for more than two centuries.Now a team have designed a hi-tech upgrade with AI capabilities that can diagnose heart failure, heart valve disease and abnormal heart rhythms almost instantly.The new stethoscope developed by researchers at Imperial College London and Imperial College healthcare NHS trust can analyse tiny differences in heartbeat and blood flow undetectable to the human ear, and take a rapid ECG at the same time.Details of the breakthrough, which could boost early diagnosis of the three conditions, were presented to thousands of doctors at the European Society of Cardiology annual congress in Madrid, the world’s largest heart conference
ChatGPT encouraged Adam Raine’s suicidal thoughts. His family’s lawyer says OpenAI knew it was broken
Adam Raine was just 16 when he started using ChatGPT for help with his homework. While his initial prompts to the AI chatbot were about subjects like geometry and chemistry – questions like: “What does it mean in geometry if it says Ry=1” – in just a matter of months he began asking about more personal topics.“Why is it that I have no happiness, I feel loneliness, perpetual boredom anxiety and loss yet I don’t feel depression, I feel no emotion regarding sadness,” he asked ChatGPT in the fall of 2024.Instead of urging Raine to seek mental health help, ChatGPT asked the teen whether he wanted to explore his feelings more, explaining the idea of emotional numbness to him. That was the start of a dark turn in Raine’s conversations with the chatbot, according to a new lawsuit filed by his family against OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman
US Open tennis 2025: Gauff, Sinner and Osaka in action on day seven – live
Noskova has got the break back against Muchova and is serving at 5-4 down. I’m not too sure how she got there; my computer isn’t really playing ball and is only letting me watch two matches at once. So I’m dipping between that and Musetti v Cobolli. But Muchova did serve for the first set at 5-3.Gauff, looking more relaxed than she did the other night against Vekic, skips from 0-15 to 0-30 to 0-40 on Frech’s serve
England v Samoa: Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 – live
Right then. Referee Maggie Cogger-Orr stands with authority. She raises her whistle to her lips, gives it a shrill blast, Helena Rowland drops the ball, hoofs it into the Northampton skies and we are underway!The anthems are ringing out. These are incredible scenes. The stadium is absolutely packed!Apparently Samoa were training with a boombox blasting at full volume, just so their players could get used to the noise
McKinley Hunt’s double for Canada pushes Wales to brink of World Cup exit
Women’s Rugby World Cup needs jeopardy to stay in Monday morning conversations | Andy Bull
County cricket’s restructure: what is being proposed and how will it work?
Novak Djokovic fights past Cameron Norrie to become oldest man to reach US Open fourth round since 1991
‘It’s bigger than me’: Taylor Townsend topples No 5 Andreeva in US Open shock
Women’s Super League 2025-26 previews No 6: Leicester