Back in the early 1970s when he was lead singer with the Faces, few of his fans would have expected Rod Stewart to be still belting out Maggie May at Glastonbury more than half a century later. Long gone are the days when rock stars hoped to die before they got old. Instead, 80-year-old rock stars symbolise the fact that Britain and other developed economies have ageing populations. Women are having children later in life and having fewer of them.
Politicians are starting to fret about the prospect of a decreasing number of people of working age supporting an ever-increasing number of pensioners. Just this week, the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said the falling birthrate had “worrying repercussions” and that she hoped to be able to make it easier for women to have children.
