the times | Wednesday April 13 2022 17
News
The days of pensioners twitching their
net curtains to check on their neigh-
bours are long gone, according to re-
search. Nowadays, they are more likely
to adjust their fashionable blinds to find
out what’s going on.
A study of the interior design tastes of
those aged over 65 showed that many
of the stereotypes about the homes of
older people no longer held true. It
found that the over-65s were shunning
patterned carpets, flowery wallpaper
and avocado bathroom sets in favour of
bold colours, modern art and wet
rooms.
The shift in tastes is spelling the end
for many classics of previous decades,
including lace tablecloths, doilies and
tea cosies. Two thirds of pensioners
now consider these items “outdated”.
Even the garden gnome is suffering
at the fickle end of fashion, with more
than half of older people considering
them out of date. Other items you are
less likely to see around the older per-
son’s home are grandfather clocks, fake
Gnomes are a no-no for new generation of over-65s
Andrew Ellson
Consumer Affairs Correspondent
flowers or fruit bowls, pot pourri and
china figurines. Even magnolia paint is
being ditched. Pebbledash walls are al-
so frowned on.
However, the fluffy loo seat cover is
the single item that over-65s consider
most passé — nearly four in five said
they would be embarrassed to have one
in their home.
Other practical items are also be-
coming much rarer. In the kitchen,
toast racks, biscuit tins and teapots are
being ditched for a more minimalist
look, although wine fridges and other
gadgets are being introduced.
In the bathroom, bidets and showers
over baths are being ripped out and re-
placed with wet rooms, and talcum
powder, bath salts and lavender soap
are no longer popular.
Many pensioners are getting their in-
teriors inspiration from a perhaps sur-
prising source — Instagram. The study
found that almost a fifth of older Brit-
ons turned to the social media site for
home improvement ideas. Pinterest
was another popular choice.
The research also found that today’s
over-65s were much more likely towant high-tech gadgets around their
homes: home security systems,
remote-controlled heating and voice-
activated smart speakers were particu-
larly popular. More than two in five
pensioners wanted to install electrical
vehicle charging points.
Older people’s embrace of active
lifestyles was also reflected in the study.
Nearly one in ten said that they wanted
to install a home gym, and a similar pro-
portion said they would like a yoga
practice area.
Stan Smolyar, of the retirement
property developer McCarthy Stone,
which conducted the study, said: “This
research shows how today’s over-65sare favouring stylish home environ-
ments they can tailor to their modern
and vibrant lifestyles.”
The study found that many older
people felt they were maligned for
lacking style or taste. Al-
most half of those sur-
veyed thought their age
group was at least as
stylish as younger gen-
erations.
Most felt comfortable
with their interiors choi-ces. Nearly six in ten respondents said
they did not follow the crowd, and
half said they had more confi-
dence in their style than
younger people.
Despite the ditching of
many items and styles usually
associated with older people,
it seems that some more tradi-
tional concepts are coming
back into fashion. Half of older
people said they would like to
live near an independent
greengrocer or bakery.
Gnomes become an
endangered species,
leading article, page 33Gnomes are out of
date, said more than
half of over-65sjack blackburnTMS
[email protected] | @timesdiaryMogg’s all rite
on the night
It was Christmas in the West End
on Monday as the Political Party
live show held a Yuletide special
previously delayed by Covid.
Despite it being time for his
Lenten teetotalism, Jacob Rees-
Mogg was delighted to get into the
festive spirit for professional
reasons. “We promised that the
online harms bill would be
published before Christmas,” the
Mogg told the host, Matt Forde.
“Thanks to you, we have delivered
on our promise.” Apparently, his
favourite Christmas tradition is
merely tweeting “Christ is born” at
midnight. “This amazingly annoys
the left,” he says. “By the time I’ve
left Midnight Mass, a thousand or
more people are furious that I
wished them Merry Christmas.”
This Sunday brings his other
favourite ritual. That’s when he
tweets “Christ is risen”.Rees-Mogg was joined by Rosena
Allin-Khan, who ran to be Labour’s
deputy leader two years ago across
four tedious months. At one
hustings, after the gormless Richard
Burgon had said, for the umpteenth
time, that “a bird needs both a left
and a right wing,” Allin-Khan could
take the repetition no more. “I burst
into song, singing Cher,” she says.
No word on which number she
picked. As she was wooing the
Corbynite vote, she probably went
for If I Could Turn Back Time.jeffrey bernard is here
The Spectator’s cartoon
editor, Michael Heath, says
that when he started at the
magazine he had to
learn to work while
drunk. He tells the
Table Talk
podcast that in a
boozy bunch, no
colleague was
more bibulous than
Jeffrey Bernard, right.Keith Waterhouse famously wrote
a play about him, Jeffrey Bernard is
Unwell, and Bernard went to every
night. However, he didn’t watch it:
he drank in the bar until he could
hear people’s praise as they left.
One night, a new doorman didn’t
recognise him and threw him out.
“Don’t you know who I am? I’m
Jeffrey Bernard,” he protested. The
doorman replied: “No you’re not
— Jeffrey Bernard’s onstage.”maggie’s star marks
Few prime ministers have been as
attentive to their red boxes as
Margaret Thatcher. The historian
Dominic Sandbrook has seen her
archives and found that, 40 years
ago, as the British taskforce neared
the Falklands, the PM received a
letter from an astrologer. “He’d
done the charts and said ‘Don’t do
the landings’,” Sandbrook tells The
Rest is History. Not only did
Thatcher read this nonsense, she
went through it and corrected the
grammar. Apparently, the fortune-
telling wasn’t nearly as alarming as
the split infinitives.As we return to airport departure
lounges, often for longer than we
hoped, some timely advice from the
well-travelled magazine editor Tina
Brown in The Oldie. “Always take
the first flight out, even if it means
getting up at 3am,” she says. “The
first plane is rarely delayed.”schindler typist signs off
Mimi Reinhard, the Holocaust
survivor and secretary to Oskar
Schindler who has died, had the
ultimate triumph over Hitler by
living to 107. She typed the lists
which saved so many Jewish lives
and helped to tell the story, up to
a point. The journalist Paul Alster
tells a TMS elf that he requested
an interview a few years ago
and received “the best
rejection of his journalistic
career”. She merely told him
“Thank you, but I decided
to stop giving interviews at
the age of 100.”