Whitey Grandad

We've been through this before. Women in this age group have passed their retirement age and many of them will have been forcibly retired from their jobs so it is very facile to say that they should just go out and get another one but it is not that straightforward.. That's why many clubs offer an age-related concession to them and because of the sex equality act they must also offer the same concession to men of the same age. They can choose to offer it at any age provided that it is the same for men and women. Saints have offered it at age 60 for may years now and have suddenly and without warning decided to increase it to 65.

Was it because it it a sh*t house?

We all do it all the time. It's more noticeable as you get older. Some people think it's due to degeneration of the brain cells but we know different, eh?

More info here: http://www.eastleigh.gov.uk/housing/home-energy-saving/renewable-energy.aspx http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/Generate-your-own-energy/Sell-your-own-energy/Feed-in-Tariff-scheme#tarifflevels So, if I understand it correctly, for Photovoltaic panels you are paid for each unit (kWh) that you generate whether you use it yourself or export it to the grid. This is the FIT rate, currently 43.3p/unit. If you don't use the electricity, for example when you are on holiday, you export it and get paid an extra 3p/unit. You also save because you aren't buying so much electricity. These rates are guaranteed for 25 years and will rise in line with RPI. You have to pay for the installation yourself and there are no other grants involved. The efficiency of the panels will decrease over the 25 years but if you buy good ones this will not drop below 80% of new. You need to clean them occasionally. The inverters will probably not last 25 years but you can buy insurance (warranty) to cover this period. The FIT rates will ber reviewed at the end of this year. These tariffs will be reduced from 31st March next year. Is this all correct?

Pompish?

Star Wars. It said so at the beginning.

Because the club will sell more seats. This is their decision, not for you or us. Our decision is whether to pay the prices. Of course, if the club should ever decide not to offer any age-related concessions then they will be widely vilified. I don't know of any organisation that has increased their age criterion once it has been set at 60.

It's not that easy to find work, and those that do are taking it away from somebody else, probably younger...

Usually most of the crew are over 60.

Orcward to describe, really.

As far as Saints are concerned nobody seems to know. It all came in with the Sex Discrimination Act of 1975 since when men and women have to be treated equally. Age concessions have to be the same for both sexes so some institutions start at 60 to make men the same as women and some at 65 to make women the same as men.

Seems fair to me. Provided that the club can have your ticket back if you don't make it to the end of the season.

No need for the insults. The reason the pension age for men was set at 65 is that not many were expected to reach it. Until you get old you will never understand the effects that ageing has on your ability to earn a living. But this is beside the point. For some time the club has been willing, for whatever reason, to offer reduced prices to various age groups. They have now restricted the scope of these reductions at the same time as increasing all prices for what is after only the Championship. You cannot expect those most affected not to complain about it.

Of course it's different. It's older and it has a reduced life expectancy.

Unless you're a woman, and many are. (This is going round in circles)

As in 'the age of englightenment'? (yes, I know, we've all done it)

Times change and we change with them. In 1943 the name of the dog had nothing to do with being offensive to people of a different skin colour and was derived from the latin word 'niger' which means 'black' and is the root of the french 'noire' and the spanish 'negro'. In fact, I remember as a child coming across the phrase 'n****r black' and there was nothing pejorative about it. However, this word is offensive to some people and I can understand why it is not used today. I would feel happier about this if certain american comedians and others were also to stop using it.

??? I was within the age group and was therefore perfectly entitled to receive it, and would still do so at many other clubs. The second point is that it is not generally possible nor desirable for older people to continue working.

But what about those who are? Who will speak up for them? Of course it is marketing. The club needs the income from the older supporter. Even Old Trafford gives concessions (over 65) and a season ticket on the halfway line is £380. (I would dearly love to retire but I struggle on through all sorts of physical problems because my money has been stolen and frittered by a government for which I did not vote)

It's a question of marketing policy. Many businesses give reduced prices to pensioners, even my local fish & chip shops. The big gripe against Saints is the change from 60 to 65 at the same time as whopping great price increases.

We may be baby boomers but that doesn't mean that we have lived through boom times. All that we have achieved has been done through our own hard work, and those that did put money away towards their old age have had it stolen by the previous government.

So that ice floats. If it didn't, ponds would freeze from the bottom up and all the fish would die. HTH

Means testing of any sort is invidious. For the last few seasons at least the club has given a concession to this particular age group, presumably because they recognise that they form an important and valuable part of their support and did not reduce their income from other supporters. For some reason they have changed their minds and it remains to be seen what effect this will have on their overall income. They are, of course, perfectly entitled to do this but we should not be surprised if crowd figures are lower next season. There are some other strange marketing decisions such as discouraging people from turning up on the day by charging extra for these tickets.

There's a lot more to the 'matchday experience' than that.

I don't believe that anybody has suggested that you should?