Like many women in middle life, I’ve noticed that medical doctors become less helpful as the years go by : the subtext being that with age comes inevitable physical and mental decline. Indeed, during a “consultation” with what appeared to be two medical students nearly ten years ago, one – with apparent sympathy – suggested both hysterectomy and early dementia as the likely consequences of symptoms then (and still) undiagnosed. Fortunately, I have since grown out these – many conditions actually improve with age ! – and now take a purely evidence-based approach to my health, avoiding so-called specialists and and minimising contact with the medical profession in general . Needless to say, I now enjoy much better health. Indeed, when I went to see a doctor last year for a sinus-related problem, he observed that I popped very few prescribed drugs and immediately issued me with three prescriptions : one of which I purchased. More people like me and the NHS might go out of business, or maybe just offer a much better service !

This brings me to the present recession (apparently the worst since since World War II and, therefore, since the creation of the NHS) and the subjects of sexism and ageism in business and the workplace. A recent report by, I think, Business Link suggests that sexism poses a greater threat to women business owners than the recession, and most women in middle life will be aware that ageism is all to frequently a factor in employment, and an important reason for many women’s decision to become self-employed and set up their own business. The situation is made more difficult these days, in my view, because since the advent of  “political correctness” attitudes operate much more subtly and covertly, amongst both men and women, younger and older people. Thus a “mature” women may find herself well regarded professionally in an environment of predominantly younger male colleagues, and “put down” in an office of her apparent peers because, perhaps, she doesn’t observe the “appearance code” for older women, and, for instance, dye her greying hair . Women beware Women, as they say !

However, it is “Managed Decline Man (and WoMan)” that pose, I would suggest, the greatest threat to individual and wider economic wellbeing at the present time. The underlying assumption of these folk, who exist throughout society but predominantly in positions of power, is that that there is a sort of “Master Race” of human being. They are, in effect, politically correct contemporary Nazis, with the difference being that they come in all shapes and sizes, colours and creeds. They are totally assured of their own merits : notwithstanding that they are, by and large, the very same people who brought this country, and many others around the world, to a state of economic and financial crisis. Now this “Master Race” invoke comparison of their creation with the post-World War II recession ! How very appropriate ! But is this comparison justified ? My feeling is that, in the case of Britain anyway , the invokation represents something of a charade behind which the incompetent managers of the “Master Race” - and its other many professional hangers on – can take cover, whilst they attempt to manage the decline of the rest of us, even if – in their Orwellian world - they call this “Growth”!