THOUGHTS ON BEATING UP OLD PEOPLE

So Silvio Berlusconi is out of hospital. And the man who clobbered him across the face with a miniature statue of Milam Cathedral is still in his cell. The facts of the story themselves are priceless. As the news was breaking I heard one (very senior) journalist exclaim, "I knew it was good as soon as I saw it....but when I realised the weapon was a piece of religious iconography.....well!'

Still one specific point has been intriguing me all week. Did he consider the Italian Prime Minister's age before he did it?

Burlo may have been the third spoke behind the Iraq war, a possibly corrupt and very rich media baron cum politician with an unhealthy interest in women a third his age... but he's still 73 years old. SEVENTY THREE. If he were a pensioner in Swansea rather than one of Europe's most powerful men you'd offer him your seat on the bus.....maybe help him buy soup in the supermarket......how did someone bring themselves to violently slash the side of his head?

42 year old Massimo Tartaglia, it turns out, has a history of mental illness but his attack still made me think about whether we simply find it easier to be mean to old people now.

One person who thinks he's a bit loud and obnoxious is the The Queen. A full ten years his senior her Maj told him off at a the G20 summit earlier this year for shouting during the family photo in Buck Palace (true story)

But they may have more in common than she thinks. For the head of the royal family was recently attacked by one of her own MPs. Peter White, a London Labour candidate called her "Vermin" and a "Parasite." He may have strong views on the monarchy but again...always wrong to hit an old man in the face...always wrong to call an old lady Vermin.

Now every year her Maj has a big theatre do thrown in her honour, called the royal variety performance, celebrity heavy but wholesome in a way entertainment aint any more. And this past time who should be the surprise guest....veteran actor Andrew Sachs.... (you can see where I'm going here.)

Sachs was at the centre of a media circus last year after BBC presenters Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand taunted him down the phone - Brand saying he'd slept with the man's granddaughter.

Of course the minds and motives of Tartaglia, White and Ross are vastly divergent. In my opinion they were mad, bad and dangerous to put on the radio in that very order, and I'm not overly concerned about the welfare of any of them but more the lack of respect for our senior generation.

Because I'm a big fan of that generation. To use a reverse cliché, our old people are the past. We should look after them, respect their years... gain their wisdom, Not hit them in the face, call them vermin and taunt them down the phone. Now where's my tartan rug?