After the disaster of the Biden/Trump debate, is it time to consider upper age limits for politics?

Politics is no place for old men, and Will Gore has some other ideas for keeping pensioners to age-appropriate activities

Donald Trump and Joe Biden at the first presidential debate (Getty)

It’s been a bad few days for the elderly.

In the US, last week’s televised presidential debate between septuagenarian Donald Trump and octogenarian Joe Biden would have served better as an advert for a nursing home than for either of those two men to re-enter the White House.

Meanwhile, on this side of the Atlantic, undercover reporters from Channel 4 News filmed a campaigner called Andrew Parker, whose campaigning for Reform UK used racist language rarely heard among political canvassers. Nigel Farage claims the whole thing was a set-up; Channel 4 disagrees. But one thing’s clear – Parker genuinely is an old ’un. Indeed, in an interview with Sky News, that fact seemed to form part of his defence. “I’m an old man,” he said. “And I still use old words.” Well, that’s one way to put it.