I guess that this was just a local example of the widespread trend towards attacking people who disagree with our views, instead of trying to have a civil discussion about differing opinions on a particular issue.

Frankly, it's delusional to believe that our opinion is always the correct one and anyone who doesn't share it is wrong.

One of the benefits of being over 60 is that you generally realise that there's so much you don't know about so many things. Following this realisation is that we discover that most issues are rarely black and white, and while life would be much simpler if they were, the reality is that there's generally a large grey area between the black and the white. This in turn means that our opinions are not always right and if we want to learn anything, it might be a good idea to talk to people whose opinions are different to our own. By having a respectful discussion about an issue gives us the opportunity to discover a different viewpoint that we can either agree or disagree with. We might learn that it's possible to disagree with someone's argument and still respect, or even like them.

Of course, we are living at a time when social media allows anonymous cowards to hurl abuse at people they disagree with, and even the American president thinks it's perfectly normal to publicly insult anyone who doesn't share his views of reality. So it's hardly surprising that our societies are becoming far less civil and tolerant.

This lack of tolerance of other people's or groups' views makes it more difficult to compromise in order to find common ground. It's very difficult for societies or political parties who are constantly faced with complicated issues and a variety of opinions to ever resolve their challenges if they can't have sensible discussions and find areas of compromise. This is clearly why we are seeing gridlock in many Western democracies and a breakdown in trust in our parliamentary system.

How did I get from an example of poor behaviour in a council gallery to a major failure in the democratic system of government, and what's that got to do with your retirement anyway?

The answer is that I'm not sure, but one of the advantages of being older (not old) is that you've been round long enough to have seen some good and bad changes in society and it's not a bad idea to consider some of the big issues from time to time.