Spiked is an online blog whose writers regard themselves as proudly anti-establishment, but when it comes to abortion, they are all staunch supporters, from Ella Whelan declaring that abortion on the grounds of disability is not discrimination to Anne Furedi’s sycophantic praise for Andrew Cuomo’s New York law for abortion to birth for any reason. However, Spiked author Kevin Yuillis concerned about […]
Families who lose a loved one during the Coronavirus crisis should be offered the opportunity of a church funeral under strict conditions, a senior church figure has said. Bishop of Derry, Dónal McKeown, also told the Irish News that churches should be allowed to open for places of private prayer during the coronavirus crisis, saying […]
A senior Republican politician from Texas sparked a media firestorm this week after suggesting that older people should consider sacrificing their lives for the economy in the face of the coronavirus crisis. Dan Patrick, a former radio talk show host who is now Lieutenant Governor of Texas, made the comments on Monday night while talking to […]
People over 60 are more affected by the coronavirus and most deaths have been of people over 70. With this background, a new study on perceptions of the elderly in the UK makes interesting reading. Attitudes to ageing are overwhelmingly negative, according to a new study by the Centre for Ageing Better, with older people subject to […]
If you’ve glanced at social media at any point in the last few weeks, there’s a high chance you’ve seen words to the effect of: “Don’t worry about covid-19 – it only affects old people.” Aside from the fact that this is medically untrue (there are plenty of young people with pre-existing conditions at risk […]
It seems that ‘[y]achtbrokers have seen a surge in bookings as people fleeing the coronavirus crisis look to go into isolation for months afloat’ (‘Demand for luxury yachts fuelled by self-isolation of super-rich’, Telegraph Business, March 23, 2020). As someone who has been involuntarily confined to barracks for a number of years there are a […]
Vulnerable and elderly people must not be discriminated against in this crisis. #gript
Here at Gript, we generally do our best to defend capitalism as, well, the least-worst way to organise a society. As in so many other areas of life, though, the people you defend don’t always make it easy. Here’s Jeremy Warner, writing in that (usually very fine) journal of British Conservatism, The Daily Telegraph: “Using […]
Every general practitioner has lonely elderly patients whose check-ups double as social events. They have few other occasions for interacting with people. Why not enlist the healthcare system in identifying people who are at highest risk for social isolation or loneliness? According to a major report from the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, […]
Germany’s highest court has overturned a ban on assisted suicide, introduced in 2015, which was ‘supposed to prevent anyone offering assisted sucide as a commercial venture’ while excempting from punishment ‘relatives or doctors who helped a single patient to die on a one-off basis’; the German constitutional court ruled that the ban meant those ‘offering […]
As a child, both my grandmothers would frequently visit us, often staying for months. At every visit, my parents were happy to pay medical specialists to examine them – no matter how minute their complaint – and pamper them by serving them their favorite foods. They also created room for them by giving them a […]
Friendships between the young and old are a win/win solution to both a growing loneliness epidemic and greater numbers of time-poor working parents. The elderly often have under-utilised time which they are happy to give, and parents and young people are often in need of their support and love. In fact, research shows that the two loneliest groups in society are the […]