Despite dementia, immobility and incontinence, the old are generally happier than the young

Apart from the weather, which has been so relentlessly horrible that it now deservedly takes precedence in the headlines over even our desperate economic plight, this is turning out to be rather an encouraging time for the old. I do not underestimate how badly the freezing weather affects us. My Jack Russell, Polly, won’t even go outside to do her business in the morning but relieves herself on the carpet in my study instead.  And I am finding it impossible to shake off a bronchial cough that keeps me awake at night and leaves me dispirited by day.

Easter is upon us, a time of renewal and rebirth, of daffodils and baby rabbits, but what do we get? Just bewildered hedgehogs emerging from hibernation joyfully to greet the spring only to find themselves wandering about in an arctic wasteland. If Easter Day turns out to be as grim as I anticipate, you might find it cheering to turn on the television when it is midday in Rome to see Pope Francis emerge on to the balcony of St Peter’s to deliver his Easter message to the city and the world. For during the five years when I worked as a correspondent in Rome, never once did the sun fail to come out at precisely that moment. It almost made me believe in miracles.

But as I was saying, this is nevertheless a good time for the old. First of all, thanks largely to a recent article in the Daily Telegraph by the editor of The Spectator, there is belated recognition that an ageing population is not so much a burden on society as something to be proud of. As Fraser Nelson wrote, ‘To be a “young” country is no boast: it tends to mean poverty, sickness and low life expectancy.