Mark Andrews: Why both Jacob and Labour have it wrong about tackling an ageing population

While our new government scares us witless with talk about financial 'black holes', and cutting pensioners' winter fuel payments to fund footballer-style pay rise for train drivers, Jake reckons the key to everlasting prosperity is to start breeding like rabbits which have overdosed on Viagra. And I suppose, put like that, Jacob's policy does sound more fun than Rachel Reeves' vision for the economy.

I suppose that is what you would expect to hear from a father of six, who probably still has a few more fruitful years ahead of him. Indeed, if his theory were correct, I suppose you could say that he and father-of -eight Boris Johnson have more than fulfilled their patriotic duties.

The trouble is that it itsn't. Mr Rees-Mogg reckons the biggest threat to our economy is the ageing population, which will means that about 50 years from now, the country will be full of grumpy old codgers in need of round-the-clock care, and not enough working-age folk to pay for it. It is the same argument that the Left uses to justify unfettered immigration, but as Donald Trump revealed this week, such an approach will only result in people gorging on their neighbours' cats.

But the truth is that the labour pool in this country is bigger than it has ever been. In 1855, there were just over 11 million people of working age in the UK, rising to just over 25 million by1965. Today the figure is more than 32 million, so there's no shortage of potential workers.

Indeed, almost every problem we are facing at the moment is the result of over-population. For example, the reason our rivers are now knee-deep in faeces is far less to do with an ideological debate about whether water companies should be privately or publicly owned, and rather more to do with the fact that our sewage network was built – often by private companies – in the late 1800s. When the population of Great Britain was about 20 million rather than the 65 million it is today.

Similarly, global warming is less about the dearth of low-traffic neighbourhoods, and the evils of car use, and more to do with the fact that the world's population has grown from one billion in 1800, to eight billion today. That's an extra seven billion people eating up nature's finite resources at break-neck speed. And Jacob doesn't think that is enough.

And the housing crisis, with Millennials and Generation Z being forced out of the market by soaring house prices? It's because there are too many of them, and not enough homes to go round. Ditto the ridiculous housing targets issued by Angela Rayner this summer, and the threat to the green belt that goes with them.

No, the way to tackle the problems of an ageing population lies neither in punishing pensioners, as the present government seems to think, nor in producing children like the average guest on the Jeremy Kyle Show, as Jacob Rees-Mogg is proposing.

The way to solve the imbalance between working and retired people is simply to adjust the retirement age in line with life expectancy. If we are going to live into our 80s and 90s, we need to face up to the fact that we are going to need to work into our 70s.

It probably wouldn't be popular. And you won't hear politicians on either side suggesting that, even though they will blabber all day long about 'making tough decisions'. But now we've heard what their suggestions are, you've got to admit, it doesn't sound so bad, does it?

* * *

It appears that Donald Trump's new-found concern for animal welfare relates to the case of Alexis T Ferrell, of Springfield, Ohio, who is accused of killing and eating a neighbour's moggie. A Ferrell cat, presumably?