Life expectancy now shorter than it was.

[OperationMalena]

From The Guardian, "Life expectancy at retirement now is two years shorter than it was when they did the last review".

So, they aren't increasing the state pension age to 68 YET because our average national life expectancy has decreased. This, plus apparently middle-aged people are fed up and it is a vote loser.

But hey, life expectancy in this country has declined. Our government(s) must be so proud. I mean WTF? How difficult can it be to find decent people in this country to run the place?

If this carries on, maybe they need to bring in retirement earlier.

My point is that cars are killing us.

We need less car use. Plenty of other places manage it.

What are we do different? The Netherlands and Japan have rain and snow. Gears and ebikes can take care of the hills.

Our problem is cultural.

The Dutch changed and so can we.

All the older people I know, the women have barely worked and all the men bar one retired early. My mum and her friends only worked after getting married for a few years part time when their last child was grown up. My dad and most others I know all retired in their 50's some earlier if they inherited. None of them were worn out. All in their 80's/90's now. They didn't drink much, definitely were not obese, most didn't smoke since teens. It's hardly surprising and why we are retiring early this year. Bodies get worn out if you are constantly working.

Healthy life expectancy in the UK is also declining, especially for women. It fell by 1 year from 2009 to 2019 and for women is is projected to fall further from 63 years to 62 years over the next 15 years.
https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/charts-and-infographics/healthy-life-expectancy-target-the-scale-of-the-challenge

I'm sure that would be a convincing motto for the next election campaign!

@QuertyGirl I'm interested in what you would do in my situation re having to use a car? would you quit your job? move the dcs schools? pay more in rent to stay in an area?

My point is that cars are killing us.

We need less car use. Plenty of other places manage it.

And as I said there is nuance. House prices & town planning very much impact on people need for cars. I'm in London so have access to good public transport but my 30 min drive to work would take 1.15 hours by public transport. I'm in a school & so many staff drive because of living far away. Same for many hospital staff.

We have high levels of radon here too. And so much long-term sickness....

I think that vapes will be proven to cause ill health in one way or another. Only time will tell.

Totally agree. Who wants to sit in a nursing home wearing a nappy fro years on end?. Just when you think the end is in sight, they wack you in an ambulance, take you to A&E, pump Full of drugs and back to the nursing home and the nappies for more endless days and nights of misery

And town planning needs to change.

That's what the 15 min cities thing is trying to do.

How difficult can it be to find decent people in this country to run the place?

I really agree with this, OP. They don't care.

(Although the more right wing they get, the more they pretend to, with their populist schtick).

Unfortunately cars are a necessity for many people, not all of us live in areas with good public transport.
We have two buses an hour, each goes to a different destination neither run before 8am and the last one finishes at 7.10 pm, the bus which goes to the nearest hospital, will stop running next month.

Footpaths and street lights are nonexistent in many parts so walking isn’t very safe.

And all of that could be changed

Did you miss the bit where I stated "unless you are unlucky"
My perfectly healthy partner dropped dead of something he had no control over. That was unlucky.
I'm making efforts to stay healthy, but I could still drop dead of an undiagnosed genetic disorder, or infection.

@QuertyGirl Buses could be added although we lost a different route last month, so it’s going in the opposite direction.
Pavements and street lights, very costly and would narrow the roads which are winding lanes so highly unlikely.

I think some of this is availability bias (i.e. you're thinking it applies generally because you're seeing it in your personal circumstances).

My parents are heading towards 80. There was a period when they were in their 50s when they lost a lot of friends to cancer and other illnesses (plus one or two suicides and car accidents). It just all seemed to happen all of a sudden.

The ones who are in their 70s and 80s now are the ones who didn't die of cancer (or another illness or reason) in their 50s in 1993. But a lot did die in their 50s in 1993.

I also disagree with your point about stoicism. Being stoic, or not, is not a determinant of whether a person gets cancer or other serious health condition, and it's a bit offensive to link illness to character in this way.

I want change. Cornwall is becoming polluted from traffic and litter and is full of radon.

Someone said unthread they are medically unable to drive. Well I am medically unable to walk.

I can barely walk the length of my house most days. I have a motability car for this very reason.

Still, 'excuses' huh

That reminds me of something that my previous GP (now retired) said to me about ten years ago.

At the end of an examination, he told me that there was no reason why I couldn't expect to live into my mid-eighties.
Jokingly, I said something like "Is that all? I was hoping to live at least into my nineties."
He immediately questioned me on why I would want to live that long, mentioning how a huge number of his patients in their late eighties or over are in almost constant pain or have conditions that severely reduce their quality of life.

It certainly gave me food for thought. It's definitely quality of life rather than quantity that I now hope for as I age.

That's very hard for you but that is definitely not the case for most people. I've got friends who would drive DC's a few 100 yards to school drop off out of sheer laziness, honestly unbelievable.

I do wonder how we could possibly afford to put in cycle lanes everywhere though, I live very rurally and surrounded by tiny lanes, it just couldn't happen.

I wouldn't send kids to a school so far away. I wouldn't do a job that requires me to drive- too unreliable with breakdowns, traffic etc

If you live somewhere with high house prices I assume that it's fairly densely populated? Then the council should be providing decent infrastructure and public transport.

You could ask them why they aren't?

That's very hard for you but that is definitely not the case for most people.

I'm not suggesting it is. But very early in in this thread a comment was made about how the thread would be met with 'howls of rage' about why people cannot manage their food/exercise.

Usual shot though, if you are disabled you don't have an equal voice.

If you look at the data behind the headlines you will see it's likely a blip caused by covid, the impact long term will be minimal but covid did advance the death of the already ill and very elderly in fairly large numbers which skews data. As the best evidence is that the vaccine combined with exposure has reduced mortality dramatically this is likely to be evened out in the next 5 years

And you are still attacking people… So nasty.

Roughly one in two people will get cancer. About a third will get heart problems. I know three people who suddenly died of heart attacks in their early 50s. All were fit, healthy, slim, ate well. That’s not “unlucky”. That’s just the way of it. One or the other will get the majority of people. They are just facts.

We can’t go back to the “healthier” lifestyle of my parents -fit and well in their 80s. That would mean massive systemic changes on a governmental level, not an individual one. Banning toxins in the environment, in food, car use, plane use, the contraceptive pill and HRT, plastics etc - all things that are seen as fundamental to modern life. We can’t avoid them.

@QuertyGirl

Not everyone lives in cities, some of us even have hills to deal with (I tried an electric bike, it couldn't cope with the hills here) and it's too dangerous to be going so slowly. Public transport would be the answer but the first bus of the day is at 10am to where I work, useless!

Most people live in towns and cities.

Only about 10% of cancers are genetic. The majority are caused by environmental factors and mostly our diet. The amount of meat and dairy consumed in this country is far higher than it should be. People think they are eating healthy but some meats are classed as carcinogens so is it any wonder cancer rates are so high? You can think your diet is healthy and be a healthy weight, but if you're consuming meat and dairy you're consuming cholesterol which will build up in your cardiovascular system.