THAT TOMORROW MAY NEVER COME

None of us likes to contemplate our own mortality. However if I lived to be the same age as my father there is another 30 years to go. If I follow my mother another 20. Of course I could drop dead tomorrow or be run over by a bus but let’s say for the sake of argument its 20 which will take me to 2028.


I raise the subject because I’ve just been looking at a series of predictions for Spain in 2040 by which time I should have long been gone. Am I not concerned how future generations will cope, you ask? Not in the least!

About a year ago I was chatting to my cousin who is probably in her late 70s. She and her husband had just bought a new carpet for their house and she was worrying whether it had a 20 year guarantee or not. He told her not to worry, she was about to argue, then thought about it and saw his point.

So it is with purely academic interest that I read a report by APD and the Hay Group presented yesterday in Bilbao. Apparently by 2040 Spain will have the oldest population in the world – old being people aged over 55. So that’s old is it? In addition almost 40 per cent of the population will be non-Spaniards.

The report actually says foreigners but as a proportion of them will be my fellow country folk I should stress we’re not foreign, we’re British!

A depressing fact is that with the increase in the aging population there will be a skills shortage. Those of the ‘baby boomer’ generation will be actively encouraged to work on, at least part time, because we will have a monopoly on skills.

So that’s the long, peaceful retirement out of the window.

It appears the only real rest in life will be death!