pensioners

   The state pension is paid to anyone who has made enough National Insurance contributions in the course of their working life. Retirement age in the UK is still 65 for men and 60 for women, although in 1990 the European Court of Justice ruled that there should be no discrimination between men and women with regard to pension schemes (in the UK, a common retirement age of 65 is being phased in). There is additionally a perceived lack of cultural discussion of retired people’s lives, which figure little in mainstream television programmes. This led Richard Ingrams to found The Oldie magazine in the late 1980s, and others have mounted their own protests. For example, in January 1998 near South Kensington underground station, the artist Melanie Manchot displayed five six-by-three-metre posters of her 66-year-old mother in her underwear with the caption ‘Look at you loving me’, to counter the marginalization of older people. Unlike the USA, Britain has no anti-age discrimination law, yet onethird of the population will be over 60 by the year 2000, and many are both able and wanting to work (as witnessed by the success of stores like B&Q and Sainsbury, which have actively recruited people over retirement age).

   See also: baby boom

   PETER CHILDS