YP Comment: Harold Macmillan was right '“ '˜baby boomers' never had it so good

Though this should not detract from three-quarters of retirees being debt-free, the context is critical – this is the generation of ‘baby boomers’, born as post-war austerity came to a thankful end, who prospered more than most from a sudden rise in living standards.

And while they followed the example of their forebears by working hard, and managing their family finances responsibly, they and their children could, if they so chose, enjoy free university education. Today, they benefit from the benevolence of successive governments in attempting to buy off the ‘grey vote’ at elections – free TV licences, fuel subsidies and bus passes are three examples.

However the term ‘free’ is a misnomer. It’s nothing of the sort. It is a taxpayer-funded subsidy and it speaks volumes about the Government’s bureaucracy that it is cheaper and simpler to make these gestures available to all OAPs, regardless of wealth, rather than targeting such support at those pensioners living in poverty and unable to heat their homes.

Yet, while senior citizens will contend, with justification, that they paid their taxes throughout their working lives and deserve some reward, it cannot escape their attention that a greater proportion of the population will, in time, be debt-laden at retirement age. For today’s generation, there are student tuition fees. There’s also no gold-plated final salary pension scheme; no financial security which can be derived from home ownership or cash injections from the so-called Bank of Mum and Dad because their retirement incomes have flatlined since the banking collapse and global slump.

Like NHS and social care where calls are growing for a separate levy on taxpayers to fund future services, rather than politicians having the courage to scale back pensioner benefits for example, the widening wealth gap between young and old families points to Britain sleepwalking towards the type of financial insecurity not envisaged in July 1957 when Mr Macmillan implored his fellow citizens to “go around the country, go to the industrial towns, go to the farms and you will see a state of prosperity such as we have never had in my lifetime – nor indeed in the history of this country”.

The supply chain

FOOD sustainability clearly matters to consumers, as evidenced by public reaction to recent shortages of courgettes, cucumber and Iceberg lettuces because of unseasonably wet winters in Spain and Italy. Yet, while respected academics like Professor Tim Benton of the University of Leeds, say “the UK can never – and should not aim to be – self-sufficient in food production”, the benefits of local produce should never be under-estimated.

Yorkshire, already the most discerning county of all, recognises this by the extent to which it has championed and promoted its food industry in recent times. There’s also a once-in-a-generation opportunity, when Britain leaves the EU, for reforms to the farm subsidy system to reward, even encourage, specific sectors of agriculture – the lingering worry remains the ability of the Rural Payments Agency to implement any changes.

Yet, as this county mourns grocery tycoon Sir Ken Morrison, it’s fitting that the supermarket which carries his name wants this region’s top food and drink producers to pitch for a place on its shelves. Not only does the extension of existing initiative support Yorkshire’s farmers, but it rewards excellence and it negates the cost of importing such large quantities of food with knock-on consequences for both cost and the wider environment.

Pigeon detectives

MOVE over The Pigeon Detectives, the indie rock band from Leeds. They have a new rival in Jazz, the Harris hawk now patrolling Whitby’s railway station. Like his contemporary Rufus who keeps Wimbledon’s hallowed Centre Court pristine for Sir Andy Murray, he’s keeping squawking seagulls and pigeons at bay after they became a public nuisance.

He’s a natural – the sadness is that Whitby’s station was allowed to fall into a state of squalor when it is the first port of call for tourists arriving in the resort via steam train on the acclaimed North Yorkshire Moors Railway. When his work is complete, perhaps the pigeon detective could arrange for Scarborough’s nuisance gulls to appear before the beak...