Inspirational longevity: Working at 80

Pensions have, correctly, become an election issue. Our systems — there are several — are inequitable, unreliable, and loaded. Questions around sustainability are pressing. Nevertheless, an election auction is not the best way to resolve these important issues. Despite that, tens of thousands of people, their dependents too, who have trustingly paid towards a pension over long careers fret that they face income collapse when they retire.

Though it may not pay for the heating oil or even butter their parsnips they might find just a sliver of inspiration in an early summer event announced for Cork yesterday.

Tom Jones is to be a headline act at the Live at the Marquee series on June 2, just five days before his 80th birthday. Jones’ longevity is inspiring, especially as he has, unlike so many of his peers, not become a tribute act to himself. That he is still working a decade after he passed the three score and ten milestone however suggests he may be reliant on one of those pension schemes that promised so much but failed to deliver. That, after all, is not unusual.