The plight of the young is not simply that they pay more. It is that what they pay becomes somebody else’s income. High rents, student debt, expensive housing, insecure work, and weak pensions are mechanisms of transfer. Since the Thatcher-Reagan turn, Britain has moved from a post-war social contract towards a market order in which housing became wealth, security became private, and the young were left to buy their way into a world their elders acquired much more cheaply.
A reflection on Britain’s long structural decline since the 2008 financial crisis, arguing that the country’s problems cannot be solved simply by replacing one leader or party. The article considers weak productivity, debt, austerity, Brexit, political fragmentation, and the wider European malaise facing France and Germany, before asking whether public patience can survive continued drift.
A reflection on Labour’s post-election dilemma, Britain’s long economic malaise since 2008, and the difference between strong leadership and responsible government. The deeper question is not simply whether Keir Starmer should stay or go, but whether any government can repair a country trapped by debt, low growth, weak trust, and years of underinvestment.