Age should be no barrier to high office. Worn out ideas are another matter David Olusoga
over 4 years in The guardian
As Joe Biden discovered, vast experience is no defence against rivals only too happy to point up his retrograde attitudes
Which country has the oldest leader? Officially it is Malaysia, whose current president, Mahathir Mohamad, weighs in at an impressive 94 years. Yet the unassailable winner of this contest is North Korea, because although the nation’s supreme leader, Kim Jong-un, is a mere youth of 35, his father, Kim Il-sung (who inconveniently died in 1994), still holds the title “Eternal Leader”, making North Korea the world’s only necrocracy.
The age of national leaders, or candidates for high office, has never been automatically regarded as an issue for concern. When Winston Churchill became prime minister for the last time in 1951, he was 76. Nelson Mandela was 75 in 1994 when he became South Africa’s first democratically elected president. His unique moral authority and the historic drama of the moment meant that few people fretted about his age. Continue reading...
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