'Power list' highlights our golden oldies

Rolling Stones singer Sir Mick Jagger (AFP/GETTY)

A "gold age power list" of the country's most influential pensioners has been published. The list – which includes The Queen, 85, Sir Alex Ferguson, 70, and Sir Mick Jagger, 67 – aims to challenge stereotypes and misconceptions about older people. It was compiled by the charity WRVS, which said the UK's ageing population was too often seen as a "looming disaster" and a "drain on society".

Other names on the list of 66 men and women aged over 66 include the writer Doris Lessing, 92; Glastonbury festival founder Michael Eavis, 75; and scientist Richard Dawkins, 70.

Pensioners judged to be at the top of their field included the author Diana Athill, 93, who won the Costa Biography prize in 2009; the cookery book writer Delia Smith, 69; Michael Palin, 68, who became president of the Royal Geographic Society in 2009; and Sir David Attenborough, 85.