I WAS disturbed, but not surprised, to read this week that the number of over-50s out of work has soared massively in the last year. This is yet another indictment of our daft disposal culture which rejects wisdom and expertise at the expense of trendy shallow youth.

According to new figures, 170,000 job seekers aged over 50 have been unemployed for at least 12 months – a 50 per cent increase in a year.

There are a number of reasons for this, of course, and no doubt many people will blame this on innovations in digital technology which have left the older generation unable to keep up.

School-age kids are now more adept than adults at computers and phone gadgets, and anyone born before 1970 is therefore struggling to keep up with the game. We older folk find it harder to absorb new ideas, so it’s not surprising the technology is more difficult for us to use.

But there’s also another reason. As bosses become younger, they look to employ people of their own type. They put no value on experience, and believe there is more vigour and drive among the younger workers.

This, in my experience, is actually nonsense. Younger people have lived more cossetted, privileged lives and don’t have the same work ethic. They are healthier but often take more sickies, and refuse to stay late because of their heavy social demands. They believe wealth should be handed to them on a plate, while my generation were taught to work for it.

Experience in the school of hard knocks is sneered at. And that’s why this country is going to pot so fast.