So Ming Campbell had to resign the leadership of the Liberal Party because he was too old. I suppose we could have a long discussion as to whether this was the real reason but let us assume for now it was.
What does this tell us about the society in which we are living?
Firstly it indicates that we are a society which fetishises youth in all its forms. This is surprising since, as George Bernard Shaw pointed out, youth is generally wasted on the young. By which I presume he means that the young are too stupid to take advantage of the opportunities it offers. When exactly this intense focus on the young started is a moot point.
I think it started when new parents decided they were not going to allow their children to be brought up the way they were, being seen and not heard and all that stuff, and generally terrified of everything until they were in a position to leave home.
In making this decision of course they promptly threw the proverbial baby (if you'll excuse the pun) out with the bathwater and instigated a society which is completely dominated by children and young people, most of whom seem to be out of control most of the time.
Parents forgo necessities in order than Jimmy or Jane can have the latest clothes or computer box in the vain hope that this will make them happy children despite the fact that the point of being young is to be miserable and believe everyone hates and fails to understand you.
It is also clearly a society which, despite all its rhetoric, has decided that once anyone reaches forty they are beyond social usefulness. The problem is that when one does actually reach forty, one actually suspects that this may be true.
I know we all pretend that life begins at forty but in reality the only things that actually begin at forty are saggy elbows, runaway wrinkles, bouts of infuriating forgetfulness, an inability to remember where the car keys and your glasses are, and an uncontrollable tendency to buy clothes that are an embarrassment to all who know you.
There are a few advantages to being over forty but they come with strings attached.
Hence if you want cheap car insurance you have to sign up to some organisation like SAGA which in turns entails you being regaled with offers of cruises with other old people in which the highlight of the day is a game of quoits and a Max Bygraves karaoke.
People assume if you are older that you know things and come and ask you for advice. This is gratifying the first few times but then you quickly realise that in fact being older does not make you wiser and all the advice you have given has led to the advisee being sacked from work, being dumped by their partner or losing all their savings in a hair-brained pyramid finance scam in which by the way you also have now invested and lost all your savings.
Walking the tightrope between looking well and being 'mutton dressed as' is a gift few oldies like me possess. The biggest problem for males is the tie.
When younger a tie can add gravitas and occasion but when older it simply says you are past the point of sartorial elegance. Leave the neck open, however, and you look like you are trying too hard and by default show off the scrawny neck which is the delight of all those of a certain age.
It also becomes impossible to have a conversation with a young person of the opposite sex because one is constantly aware of not coming on like a sleazy old lounge lizard.
The effort involved in making sure this is not the case is, of course, the very thing that makes it the case and the more you protest you are not attempting some kind of chat up strategy the more the victim comes to believe you are.
The result is that conversation is eventually shoehorned into a never-ending roundabout of known stories with people you have been communicating with for virtually all of your advancing (galloping) years.
So what is the answer? Probably resignation with which will come the ability to be rude to all and sundry with impunity and have the glorious wisdom, and undying gratitude, to know that England will never qualify for the European Championships, win a rugby World Cup or a Formula 1 driving championship after only one year.
Age will also bring a free bus and train pass to visit places you have only heard of on postcards.
But most of all it will bring the horrid realisation that, yes, Ming Campbell did need to go because at the end of a dying day he was just too old, too settled and too ordinary to lead anything other than a retirement home conga.
