Why do the Liberal Democrats see the over-65s as a “time bomb”?

We are living longer, healthier and more prosperous lives than ever — it’s one of the greatest advances of our time, and yet our politicians prefer to see it as a disaster. ‘We are facing a time bomb,’ says the Liberal Democrat Norman Lamb, a health minister. He presents the numbers as if we are supposed to be appalled: ‘by 2030 England will have double the number of over-85s. The number of over-65s will have increased by 50 per cent.’  In other words: oh my God, we’re all going to live.

It’s odd that the Liberal Democrats should be so alarmed by the fact that there will be half a million of us who have celebrated 90 or more Christmases — three times as many as there were in the 1980s. Mr Lamb’s ‘time bomb’ is nothing to dread. It means that this Christmas many more families will be celebrating across the generations.

Of course, Mr Lamb has half a point.