OPINION - Simon Donohue is the editor of Greater Manchester Business Week

I've just celebrated my landmark 40th birthday in the way that previous generations might have ushered in their twenties.

I bought an electric guitar, went clubbing at Dave Haslam's fantastic Yellow night and enjoyed a wild weekend away with the lads.

Only a generation or two ago, the same transition into mid-life would more likely have been marked with the acquisition of a comfortable pair of slippers and a cardigan.

The point is, there's been a seismic shift in the ageing process and one which has as much to do with when we die as when we live.

We're fitter for longer, to the extent that people who might have been preparing for a hip op in yesteryear are now more likely to be out dancing to hip hop.

Advances in the workplace, in medical science and in awareness of issues ranging from smoking and drinking to watching what we eat have had a massive impact in both the quality and longevity of life.

But there's a high price to pay.

A report from the Reform think tank recently laid bare the grim prospect of a Britain facing rising taxes and increasing deficits in order to pay for the care of its ageing population.

With the number of over-65s expected to soar by 1.4m by 2015, taxpayers face a £32bn bill for retirement pensions and nearly £40m for healthcare by 2041.

It gets worse.

The burden on the taxpayer is nothing compared to the burden on society of caring for old folk who can deafened by acid house and drum and bass.

Given that our kids will be too busy raving into their sixties to look after their ninety-something parents, there's going to have to be a care home next door to every McDonald's restaurant in the not-too-distant future.

Yet terrifyingly, we're far better at franchising fast food than we are at the care of our elderly right now.

The collapse of the Southern Cross Healthcare group was a business story with an unedifying social twist.

It was a business built on the very notion of an ageing population and fuelled by the same easy finance and property speculation which led capitalism into the abyss.

The group was hit by a triple whammy or public sector cuts, falling property prices and rising rents.

Inevitably, there were reports of falling standards of care.

It's one thing to suffer the cost-efficiency inspired insult of shrinking bars of chocolate, but the particularly raw materials here are human beings.

Trading in the Souther Cross shares has now been suspended, but the nightmare of uncertainly rumbles on for many of its 31,000 residents.

Many will now be resident in homes run by former Southern Cross landlords concerned that there might not be enough money in the care home game to keep them in profit.

Safeguards do exist: local authorities have a duty of care towards elderly people. No-one will be without a bed for the night.

At present, however, the model of care appears to rely upon a system which is inherently unreliable and inextricably linked to making money.

Age UK recently published a damning report, Care in Crisis: Causes and Solutions, which provided evidence to prove that care and support for older people in England has reached “breaking point”.

This month a report from the Dilnot Commission proposed a new model of funding for adult social care, the centrepiece of which is a sharing of “costs of care in later life between individuals and the state”.

The way that facilities are run and funded was outside the commission's remit, which seems remiss.

The Department of Health is to increase funding to local authorities, but noone seems to have anything to say about who's going to do the work if it doesn't pay dividends?

We can at least be reassured that the issue is being taken seriously, but how any new legislation squares with the provision of care services remains to be seen.

If ever there was a case for a not-for-profit, co-operatively owned and operated industry, then caring for our old people must surely be it.

One thing is certain: while the party might be going on longer than ever before, the hangover is going be impossible if we don't act now.

*Not sure if I agree with the carpeting given to Trading Standards officers in Oldham by district Judge Prowse, who criticised them for pursuing the case of a market trader selling supposedly counterfeit goods.

Judge Prowse's concern was that no customers had been misled by Tommyfield market stallholder Anthony Aspin, who sold watches bearing logos said to be similar to those owned by Armani and a Dolce & Gabbana.

Thousands of pounds of public money was squandered during the council investegation, Judge Prowse lamented.

Representing himself, Mr Aspin suggested that “only an idiot” would think a £10 Dolce & Gabbana watch was a real designer item.

I'm not sure about the legality of the situation, but my sympathies remain with the brand owners who spend literally millions of pounds creating top quality products and then cultivating a distinct brand character.

Still, there are Trading Standards officers with tougher jobs on their hands.

Perhaps the Oldham team might recover from the tongue-lashing with a busman's holiday to China, where an entire chain of counterfeit Apple store has just been closed down.

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