Thursday 10th November

Our generation and the one before ours have successfully screwed the young.

Housing – Mum and Dad got a brand new council house, they had to wait a couple of years for it but it was semi-detached with a big garden and three bedrooms for us two kids.  I was homeless and got a council flat, not brilliant but a decent rent and two bedrooms for my son and I.  My grand-kids will have to rent privately unless their parents can stump up a deposit.  Most of the retirees here in France are living on the proceeds of houses sold in England at prices their kids cannot afford.  Pulling up the drawbridge.

Education – was free, though segregated at 11.  University was free with generous grants.  My grand-kid’s parents have to fight the postcode lottery to get their kids into a ‘good school’.  Graduates leave now with huge debts.  Pulling up the drawbridge.

Employment – I could walk out of one job in the morning and into a new one after lunch.  Nobody ever asked to see a CV or ask what qualifications I had (very few). Now thousands attach their CVs to vacant job ads and many graduates are working as waiters.  Firms like Uber and Deliveroo are paying their workers (sub-contractors) well below the minimum wage with zero hours contracts.  My Dad worked for ICI his whole working life’ impossible to imagine doing that today.  Pulling up the drawbridge.

Pensions – State Retirement Pensions are triple-locked and relatively generous.  My kids will have to work until they are 68; my Grandkids – who knows?  Pulling up the drawbridge.

Health – over 50% of NHS spending is on the over 65’s.  With no increase in funding that cannot continue for long.  Pretty soon charges will be introduced or a top-up insurance system.  Our age group will probably be protected but not the young.  Pulling up the drawbridge.

If there ever is a change, it will have to come from the young; us oldies are simply too comfortable.  But be quick, we are winding up the drawbridge as I write…