Bill Harvey: I’ve got a silver machine

My kids keep telling me I will be an awful pensioner when the time comes – a sort of sub-Victor Meldrew terror. I think this is because I keep telling them how annoying it is to see elderly people, some of whom have led varied and often wild lives, being spoken to as if they are idiots.

Some years ago, I used to help out on a low vision module and ran a station exam. One station was simply a history and symptoms task, but I deliberately used a model patient who looked frail and doddery but, in fact, had a laser-like mind and would turn on anyone treating him as anything other than intelligent. At the first ‘So how are we today then?’ upward cadence, it was best to run for cover.