My generation is set to be the first in 100 years to be poorer than our parents, yet we have a political system that funnels money into the hands of the old. The most obvious, and perhaps most egregious manifestation of this is the triple lock on pensions.
Spending on pensions is expected to balloon to £135bn by 2025 as a result of the triple lock – that’s more than the day-to-day budgets for the Department for Education, the Home Office, and the Ministry of Defence combined. And this astronomical amount of money is being funded by us – young people who are contributing to the labour market. It is utterly unsustainable, and makes it even less surprising that one poll found that just 1% of 18 to 24 year olds are planning on voting Conservative in the next election, compared to 46% of over 65s.
This represents an existential issue for the party – to put it bluntly, Tory voters are dying off.
So, how did the Conservatives get into this intergenerational mess?
“Older generations have benefited from a political economy that has privileged their interests across a range of policy areas.”
On the 2nd October, I chaired a panel discussing exactly this. I was joined by the Centre for Policy Studies’ Emma Revell, Damien Green MP, the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Alex Morton, Lee Rowley MP, and London Mayoral candidate Samuel Kasumu.
