Supermarket 'for older people' may open in Britain

Tesco, which hopes to open the country's first pensioner-friendly store complete with wider shopping aisles and brighter lights, has sent a group over over-65s to the Kaiser supermarket in Berlin, the first of its kind in Germany. The group will report back to Tesco before a decision is made on the proposed 60,000sq ft store in Newcastle, next door to Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing and Health. Professor Jim Edwardson, 67, founder of the Institute and one of those who travelled to Germany, said: "Almost everything about supermarket shopping in the UK is wrong for elderly customers, from shelving that is too high to reach or too low to get to. (link via telegraph.co.uk) This is great news! It's about time that supermarket owners realize that many of their customers are older and should be catered to. In fact, all supermarkets should be re-designed and/or modified to be 'pensioner-friendly' and meet the needs of pensioners* and indeed all their customers, regardless of their age. It would make shopping eaier for everyone not just the elderly! *a pensioner is a person who has retired, and now collects a pension Tesco is one of the world's leading international retailers

Living longer and age discrimination

The famous novelist, Margaret Drabble. has written a powerful article about age discrimination published in The Observer today: The old have a powerful role to play. We're going to enjoy it. From offensive road signs to bad jokes about silver surfers, age discrimination is one of the besetting problems of our times I recommend you read the entire article. Margaret Drabble makes a lot of excellent points such as this: We don't like being portrayed officially as dodderers with sticks and bent backs who are a menace on the roads and we object to patronising jokes about silver surfers. We want to choose to grow old gracefully, like the Queen or disgracefully, like John Mortimer and Beryl Cook, or not at all, like Helen Mirren. We don't want to be lumped into a category.

Rise in knife crime in Britain

The big talking point in the UK lately is the surge in fatal knife attacks, particularly in England, and how knife crime is going to be dealt with. The latest news report is that the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has said that, Members of the public should intervene if they see a crime being committed. (link via itn.co.uk) Is she serious?! Somehow, I don't think members of the public appreciate this latest suggestion, which seems very foolhardy and risky, especially following this recent report: A police officer was kicked, beaten and bitten when he was attacked by a gang of schoolchildren, some wearing uniform, when he asked a girl to pick up litter she had dropped. (link via independent.co.uk) If the police are getting attacked by schoolchildren, what hope does a member of the public have? The Government keeps coming up with crazy and desperate ideas about how to deal with knife crime such as the suggestion to shame the criminals by marching them to casualty units to confront their stab victims. Yeah, right - as if being attacked isn't bad enough, you might be confronted by your attacker in the hospital too! The public reaction was swift and furious at the very idea and after outrage among doctors, patients, crime experts and MPs, the government tried to backtrack and claim they never suggested it, even though Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had been heard voicing the idea in broadcast interviews.

Do you know your neighbours?

Do you know your neighbours - and if so, do you trust any of them enough to leave your keys with? The reason I ask is that I just found out via an article titled, Thou shalt be neighbourly in The Guardian that yesterday was European Neighbours' Day. Somehow, I doubt that a special day to honour our neighbours will have had little impact on the behavior of people (and that's assuming they knew anything about it since it didn't have much publicity) towards their neighbours. It's interesting to note that the BBC recently produced an article, Are we a nation of strangers? about this subject too. I found it really sad to read that, More than a third (36%) of us would not trust anybody on our street with our keys, according to a survey commissioned by the BBC. From my point of view, I have to say that I'm fortunate because my neighbours are very friendly and trust-worthy. I know my neighbours in three houses on one side, two on the other and three across the street. I would happily give the keys to my house to the people from four of those households. I have an observation about neighbourliness here, from my perspective as an American. I think there is a very strong element of a need for privacy in such a small and crowded island and the fact that houses are built very close together (even the detached houses are) so that fences and high hedges are considered to be necessary, makes it difficult to get to know neighbours. There is some encouraging news though, with an upsurge in community activities, such as RHS Britain in Bloom and the increasing popularity of allotments*. Okay, you might not meet your next door neighbours but you will meet people from your community and that interaction is a positive step forward. It's really true that England is a nation of gardeners and I think that is certainly one good way to encourage neighbourliness. What are your thoughts? Do you think people are interacting less with their neighbours? If you don't know your neighbours, why not? *Did you know that all councils in England & Wales (with the exception of Inner London) have to, by law, provide allotments?