THE thorny subject of ageism cropped up in current affairs again this week with the news that it's going to be about five years before those of us past our sell-by date get rid of the sell-by date altogether.

In other words many of us oldies will be past it -- or dead -- by the time our government as well as others in Europe adopt laws preventing those past the age of about 60 from being discriminated against.

What's that? You don't think you ARE discriminated against for being old? Well, if it hasn't happened to you yet, you're lucky. But it will. It definitely will. Just try to stay on working in your job past 65. Or even 60 for that matter.

Several shocking cases of age discrimination even came to light on the national news this week.

There was the case of the lady of 75 who asked to have her deformed wrist reset at hospital after it had been wrongly set in the first place after being broken in a fall. A doctor told her quite openly that if she had been younger he would have done it but he considered it not worth while at her age.

Rather patiently, I thought, she asked him if he had actually taken the Hippocratic oath, took her case further and eventually got the operation.

And this after the scandal some time ago of older people being pushed back in the queues waiting for operations in favour of younger people.

Then there was the case of the lady who wanted to buy a new TV at a leading retailer but was told that she couldn't have interest-free credit -- because she was over 70! She rejected the purchase on those grounds, made further inquiries only to find that because of her age she couldn't get interest-free credit anywhere.

One lady who had had a credit card for many years received a letter from the card providers informing her on her 70th birthday that because of her age they weren't prepared to give her card protection insurance any longer. Angered, she complained bitterly only to be told that most other credit card companies applied the rule at 65! Put out of work at 59, another lady found it impossible to find another job at her age. Determined to prove a point, she started an agency specifically targeted to finding work for people in the older age bracket.

It's not only thriving, it is providing jobs in the agency for many older people. Bravo!

I suppose the first time I ran into a form of ageism was at my bank. They suddenly seemed to discover, six years after the event, that, as a retired person, my account was no longer being credited each month with an amount as large as when I was working. So they wrote to me announcing they were throwing me out of my current account and moving me to another account which could only be operated with a debit card. Oh, and I could no longer have a cheque book or overdraft facility. And in case you're thinking the worst, the account had never been overdrawn or had less than a £250 balance. I had never used the overdraft facility which the bank had automatically granted me when it moved me into the account, as its own whim, in the first place.

Incensed, I did what we're all advised to do -- complain to the top -- so I wrote a furious letter to the chief executive pointing out this was blatant discrimination against retired people. In response I got an apologetic letter from the head of banking firmly rejecting my argument but informing me I could keep my account. Two months later they did it anyway. What price a bank's promise, you might ask?

So who have we grey-hairs got on our side? Well, there's good old Gordon Lishman, national director of Age Concern and former local councillor whose dad was a greatly loved doctor in the Harle Syke area of Burnley.

He's leading the fight to get the government to adopt laws outlawing ageism but says that the men in charge are still listening to short-sighted employers who want to retain the power to discriminate against over-65s.

Well, we pensioners are a powerful lobby. We've stood around and watched laws passed to end discrimination by race and by sex. So why should we stand for discrimination by age? Many people over 65 are no longer allowed to work even though they can bring a lifetime of experience and knowledge to their job. But whether you're denied a job, a hospital operation, a bank account or simply many of the other privileges that younger people enjoy, I think it's time we oldies made it clear to the government that we aren't prepared to be pushed around like this much longer.

See you, at 70, on the driving test.