Lonely old world
From Mr Trevor Lyttleton Sir: My favourite Spectator columnist, Petronella Wyatt (Singular life, 18 May), attributes the 'declining standards of behaviour' of our pensioners to 'this country's attitude towards them' and the fact that 'so many of the elderly, rejected by the children they once nurtured, hit out from bitterness and despair'.
It is worth noting that more than half of our ten million elderly, one in three of whom live alone, feel very lonely. What loneliness really means was perhaps best explained by Mother Teresa, who more than most knew of the depths of human suffering, in the words, 'Being alone and unwanted is the world's greatest disease.' The sad truth is that our declining tax base and the erosion of pension provisions by falling annuity rates, combined with greater longevity, will compound the problem of loneliness and the pressing financial worries of this increasingly marginalised group of people.
Petronella Wyatt is therefore right to focus on the key issue of loneliness. However, her portrayal of 'many' lonely pensioners as 'rude, churlish and simply uncontrollable' is unproven in our experience. Few of Contact the Elderly's volunteers would apply such epithets to the thousands of lonely and neglected elderly people whose lives they have enhanced over the years, via Contact the Elderly's simple, monthly act of friendship, throughout the UK.
As Petronella has the three essential requirements of a Contact the Elderly hostess — a warm heart, a large teapot and a downstairs loo — perhaps she would care to research this point at first hand by inviting one of our groups of lonely, elderly and their volunteers to tea. I am willing to bet her a bottle of bubbly that she will find most of our elderly people to be patient, kind, appreciative, and as entertaining as she is.
Trevor Lyttleton
Founder and Chairman of Contact the Elderly, 15 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London WC2
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