A morning of good news

Battling a stomach bug, so decided only good news this morning ...

The British workforce is - if slowly - opening up to older workers. About 10 per cent of pensionable age people are working. You might question whether this is good news - and certainly some of those people have to work because of their financial conditions.

But many say they are happy to do it, even choose to do it, and given the changing age structure and increasing life expectancy, it only makes sense for people to work longer, even if in different jobs. Certainly I can't ever imagine "retiring" while physically able to continue to work at some job. And this is particularly a women's issue, in that women are the ones who live longer and have smaller pensions ... they are going to need the jobs.

After all, today there are 6,000 centenarians in Britain; in 30 years' time there are predicted to be 30,000 - probably not many in jobs, but you never know.

Liberia's new female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf -- the first in Africa -- has been sworn in" and the first in-her-own-right female president has been elected in South America, Michelle Bachelet in Chile. This site puts the current tally of international heads of state and government. Not great, but an improvement.