Too old for politics - or just the media?

Andrew Blick (London, Houses of Parliament): Menzies Campbell has cited "seven consecutive reports about my age and about leadership" as prompting his resignation. While there were obviously deeper lying reasons for the pressure on him, that his age can be used in this way through the media is dispiriting. It is now blithely accepted that politicians have an earlier and earlier sell-by date. Yet as life expectancy increases society as a whole is growing older (the average age of a person in the UK has risen from 34 to 39 since 1971); and the average age of voters has risen faster again. There is no obvious reason that the demographic trends for political leaders should be moving in the opposite direction. Indeed it could be sensible for parties to include on their front benches some drawn from the same generation of large sections of the electorate. Compared to other MPs (average age approximately 50) Campbell is not ancient. And at 66 he is only a year older than Winston Churchill when he became Prime Minister for the first time (and roughly fifteen years younger than Churchill when he finally made way for the younger and disastrous Anthony Eden). Churchill combined the crime of being in his sixties with a drinking habit of the sort which helped undo Campbell's predecessor. Yet he was undoubtedly the right man to lead the country against the Axis Powers in 1940 - surely even more demanding a task than taking charge of the Liberal Democrats in 2007.