This is the FT Long Read this morning.
I can save you the time reading it. The answer is, yes.
But there was one chart in the report worth sharing, and it was this:
I hate to say it, but it is the elderly dragging this country down. You know the sort. You probably meet them, as I do. It comes with having white hair.
These are the types who genuinely believe they fought on the beaches, saw the Spitfires in dogfights overhead, and the world was all in good order when they were young because the police clipped misbehaving youngsters around the ear, and the world was then put to rights.
Thatcher's legacy is dire - because these are Thatcher's real offspring. They're deluded, selfish, hate the young (except their grandchildren, of course, who are "ever so clever" because they've gone to university, but whose friends are otherwise loathsome) and utterly detached from reality in a great many cases. The sooner they pass the baton, the better, and they can take their Parties with them when they go. The young are showing us the way - and are being denied the chance by the elderly.
In the context of another post this morning, how do we get that message across?
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Am I off track in having the impression that the major press outlets/corporations, the BBC and ITV appear to be controlled by people “who genuinely believe they fought on the beaches, saw the Spitfires in dogfights overhead, and the world was all in good order when they were young because the police clipped misbehaving youngsters around the ear, and the world was then put to rights. Thatcher’s legacy is dire – because these are Thatcher’s real offspring. They’re deluded, selfish, hate the young … and utterly detached from reality in a great many cases”?
How much coverage have these entities given to Zack Polanski’s speech to the Green Party Conference?
I found a recording on Facebook.
You may be right
It was live on Sky and BBC24. I expect there are people in news organisations who want to deprive them of publicity but equally, there will be others who want to subvert them. Remember when the BBC tried to silence Gary Linaker. An American friend who followed the story was ‘amazed at the solidarity’. One day we will know the whole story.
But the ‘old’ are not the corrupt owners of the billionaire press – the barons who are pumping out the hatred. They want ‘the little people’ to be divided – and the ‘old/young. is a handy division , now that the economy has tanked enough to prevent young people being able to afford to buy or rent a house. David Davies has been lovingly nurturing this trope for several years.
There are indeed many old people who think along the lines of your ‘spitfires’ caricature Richard but I’m not sure it helps to just want them to die off as quickly a possible . Many of them were the life and soul of the swinging sixties, and may have been punk rockers, and will no doubt be replaced by the next generation who have become more reactionary as they age.
We must get a grip on the corporate media platforms feeding on and promulgating hate through their algorithms and on the tax evading media barons, and make the BBC a fully independent public service broadcaster.
.
“These are the types who genuinely believe they fought on the beaches, saw the Spitfires in dogfights overhead, and the world was all in good order when they were young because the police clipped misbehaving youngsters around the ear, and the world was then put to rights.” This is an excellent quote, thanks.
‘Genuinely believe’ is the key word, as statistics showed that in 2016 the very oldest cohorts of voters – the ones who actually experienced the war (some even fighting in it) – voted to remain in the EU referendum. It is the so called ‘boomers’ – people born after the war (1945-65) – that were the cohort that voted leave in such large numbers that swing the result – aided by mass readership of the right wing press.
As the historian David Edgerton says – Britain is a country revolving around the grey vote and the media revolves around the grey vote, but there is another country, and it is the one that doesn’t share the shibboleths of the old, and one that – through younger ages moving through – is only going to get more of a voice with time.
Thank you
And agreed
Some old people. Not you. Not me (I’m 86) The group is really anyone who says “you’ll never change my mind about X” and they can be any age.
A lot here are exceptions to this observation. We are.
In the context of Deform it would seem that the on-going “legitimisation” of Fart-Rage and Tice is on track.
https://beeley.substack.com/p/uk-column-news-the-zionist-take-over
@ 8min 20sec – Fart-Rage and Tice have been meeting with BoE officials.
Question to the BoE: apart from the monthly “catch-up” with Goldman Sachs (hat-tip Col Smithers) how many times have BoE officials met with:
a) Lib-Dems (order of magnitude more HoC seats than Deform)
b) Greens (+/- the same number)
c) SNP (as per Lib-=Dems +/-)
d) Who made the decision to meet with a party that is a limited libaility company (I am a director of a UK Ltd – will the BoE meet with me? – I’m politically active)
e) What was the rationale for the meeting ? (light entertainment from a cogenital liar?)
f) what was said at the meeting?
I bet no minute is published.
Repetition springs to mind as the way forward to get the message across, as per your other post.
Good stuff Richard et al.
Ian Duncan Smith identified the death of the Conservative Party 2 decades ago. And articles written then were saying that the Party has been in trouble since 1992. The success of the most successful party has always been due to its willingness to Jettison ideology at every moment to keep power. That is not true anymore and hasn’t been for a long time. It is ideologically captured by a particular age cohort and this cohort actively advances its own power and interest rather than the interest of the party. Their party is not for continuation.
I think this refusal to innovate – but to actually look backwards, is precisely what their problem is.
But it is also the problem of the whole single transferable party.
I used to be very vocal (and derogatory) about the UK’s “gerontocracy” and I still hold the view that the odds of finding someone with toxic political views (i.e. more focused on making the lives of others miserable than their own better, or more focused on their own excessive material wealth than the good of the country) are much better amongst older cohorts.
However, there are big drawbacks to this way of viewing the world. It can alienate the young from older people who could be persuaded; it can unfairly paint all elderly as a problem and it also distorts the picture of what is really going on. It is particularly important to remember that not all far right voters are older homeowners with comfy lives. The very poor of that generation and others are also very active.
The biggest problem was I naively believed the hateful politics would become if not extinct then marginalised with the demise of the “Boomers.” Unfortunately, young men and boys are increasingly being attracted to these toxic politics too, with Andrew Tate an obvious gateway and Farage is very active on TikTok too. Don’t underestimate how much this is cutting through.
Noted and agreed
In my “youth” it was people like Bertrand Russell, Bruce Kent. Noam Chomsky and Tony Benn who kept me sane and hopefully of a brighter future, now, fortunately we have Richard Murphy, Zac Polanski to carry the torch of progress and survival.
When confronted with an unwillingness to change, my father would always say “while there is death there is hope”. In his 90s he voted remain (and abhorred the “poppy fascism” season that is about to come upon us).
Sadly, I am not sure that is true anymore. As you say, the death of his generation that actually served in the military during WW2 has given way to the generation that you describe. Worse, as many BTL comments suggest, the generations that follow are being drawn towards selfishness and fascism.
I like his comment.
And yours.
I think that the Tories certainly look like they’re finished, but I reckon that this is a short term view. Reform will win the next general election but will quickly implode (Farage clearly doesn’t like criticism or scrutiny; he’ll get plenty as PM). The Tories will then regroup. People who are right leaning won’t vote for any left of centre party, including Starmer’s LINO.