Young people, most especially, are struggling to find reasons for hope in the world neoliberal politics has created, and who can blame them?
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
People, politics and despair are three topics that have crashed into my thinking over the last few days.
I actually took a weekend off last week, which is quite unusual for me and went away, but I didn't stop thinking because, for me, that's something that just does not happen. And I was having a coffee quite early one morning over that weekend, in Chichester, where I was staying in West Sussex, and I was having a conversation with the barista.
The barista in question was a young man, I guess around 28-ish, but we never even got as far as swapping names. But the conversation was fascinating because he asked what I did and we talked about that, and we talked about political economy, and he said things which are so typical of people in the UK right now, and most especially younger people in the UK right now.
Here was a clearly intelligent man. There was absolutely no shadow of a doubt about that. Everything he said indicated that. He was a graduate. The discussion implied he was, and I'm sure that was true. But he has stopped listening to the news in the UK.
He can't face news about Trump, which is so dystopian that he just feels as though it is oppressing his well-being.
He can't also face listening to the news because he had hope that last summer we might get a new government that might change something in the UK, and he now realises that isn't going to happen.
He is literally despairing of the political process, both domestically and internationally. It is as if everything has been pulled away from him. He is left in despair because the politicians have given him nothing to believe in, and for that reason, he's effectively giving up on them.
And of course, he's not alone. It's typical of young people that they feel this way.
They feel that they have no hope.
No hope of a house.
No hope of a decent job, let alone a well-paid job.
No hope of the opportunity to, therefore, create and provide for a family.
No chance to use their skills, those that they trained for at university and for which they created a very large debt that now hangs like a millstone around their neck.
No chance to think, to create, to add value to the world, which they did want to believe in, but are wondering whether they can.
They actually feel as though the tax rate is too high as well. They are deeply disincentivised by the financial situation, which this government, amongst others in the past, has put in front of them, because just look at that tax rate.
20% income tax.
8% national insurance.
10% student tax, which is effectively what repayment of student debt involves.
A 5% pension charge, which as this young man put it to me, is all about, in fact, him having to pay now for the old age pension he might get, because, somewhere down the line, he does not believe any government is going to keep up its commitment, which I'm enjoying, of a state old age pension.
In total, , he's going to be paying, if he ever gets near a salary big enough to almost live independently of his parents, a combined tax rate of 43% on the margin, something which is more than the tax rate actually paid by those earning between £50,000 and £100,000 in the UK and only a tiny little bit less than those earning over £150,000 in the UK.
Everything is stacked against that young man.
And then just to add to the mix, there's AI, which is just removing his hope, particularly as a creative person.
How long will it be before whatever it is that he wants to create will be done by a machine instead, at lower cost, by people who are only interested in maximising profit and who aren't really interested in creativity at all?
Of course, he's despairing of politics. Why wouldn't he be? All the odds are stacked up. So what does he do instead? What I read into what he told me was this: he looks for the next dopamine hit.
We didn't discuss where that came from, although clearly we were looking at coffee and cakes, so maybe that was it.
But what he is also looking for, and a lot of young people might look for, is alcohol. Or illicit substances or sex or whatever else your poison might be, but in every case, the desire is for a dopamine hit in the short term, and that's because in the political situation in which we're living, people have given up on the long term. They can't see the chance for a house, a family, a reason to invest, a reason to create the skills for their long-term career, because they don't see there being a long-term career.
In fact, they don't really see anything much in the future because that is what neoliberal politics and neoliberal economics is offering them. A future without hope.
We've created a population that doesn't believe in government.
As a result, it doesn't believe in the future.
As a result, it hasn't even got high expectations of tomorrow.
It will simply get the hit it needs tonight, and we are, as a consequence, keeping young people in a sense of perpetual youth.
We are not letting them grow up.
We are not letting them take on the responsibilities of adulthood because we aren't entrusting them with the opportunity to take the risk on those things that once were the signs of that happening - the independence that was the key factor in that equation.
And yet neoliberalism is premised on the fact that we need these people.
The hopes of the far right politicians who want to ensure that we do not have migration into the country are also premised on the belief that we must keep people in the UK in this situation, doing jobs that are frankly unrewarding to a degree that is staggering, especially given the scale of qualification that people doing them have.
This is the world that neoliberalism has created.
It's desperate.
The politicians who've created this need to look at themselves and realise how badly they have failed this country.
And the populists who think that they have an answer need to look as well, because what they're talking about is keeping people in this situation, and that really worries me.
We need a politics that cares, and that's the last thing that we've got now.
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Bleak indeed. In fact your blog has been unremittingly bleak of late. And that’s not a criticism, because, for sure, there are not many positives around at the moment.
But how might things improve? Clearly the current incarnation of the Labour Party won’t deliver that. Of the main parties, only the Greens seem to get that the neoliberal consensus must be broken, but you have said that their economic policies lack credibility. So why not work with them – alongside others like Gary Stevenson – to fix that?
Or are the Greens too typecast as a single-issue party, dominated by white, middle class luvvies to ever have a wider appeal?
Maybe Starmer’s Labour will crash and burn. And be reincarnated as a left of center party willing to ditch neoliberalism? But I’m not holding my breath.
The only other option seems to be to the emergence of a new political party to promote a progressive alternative to neoliberalism, but – especially with FPTP – that would be difficult.
I hope you’re thinking and working on this. It really would be nice to have some hope for the future.
I am working on book ideas right now, apart from what videos to record on Tuesday
Have I been bleak? Yes. Has the world been bleak? Yes.
Do I think we need a new political party? Yes. Is it my job to create that? No. That is really not in my skill set.
Many years ago VENUE, the Bristol ‘whats on’ magazine published a cartoon in the run up to an election which went a bit like this
TV Presenter approaches a Punk for a Vox Pop
What do you want
I want riots, the overthrow of the Establishment, the creation of a Republic etc
So I take it you are supporting the Anarchists?
No, I’m voting for Thatcher
I can clearly see it coming about as young people find it increasingly difficult to ‘adult’ and instead see their inadequate wages going to their landlords
Agreed.
Neo-liberalism has indeed enthroned short termism in economic behaviour and also legalised theft through the stock market of other peoples hard work. On top of that it is also like making war on others over resources – something Michael Hudson talks about a lot. This state sanctioned war though is is no better than pirate-ism, an aggressive theft of other people’s futures.
I saw this when my father was made redundant when his expanding engineering company he worked for got taken over and asset stripped. I understood that though only in my 20’s when I actually got him to talk about it. I realised then looking at the effects on my family that something inherently evil was going on, with a logic all of its own. After the buy out, the impact on my family was catastrophic, we became latch key kids, second hand clothes and all that and our parents were working 7 days a week to keep the house. We were essentially no longer a family – we all just happened to live in the same place.
As a working class person therefore I have grown up with this realisation and much of it was in the opening salvos when I first touched base with you here. It was clear to me then before coming here where this was all going. There was no real security at all unless you were a player with money to put in to get even more out for yourself – it was not investment, your money is more like a Trojan Horse, giving you the right to reward yourself and sell off productive assets as part of the deal. Theft dressed up as a gift. And all this as Thomas Hobbes pointed out, justified by our universities who themselves have acted as Trojan Horse for Neo-liberalism (Behemoth, Dialogue 1).
What is pointed for me is that you tell me the young man is a graduate already technically with a pass into being middle class. So it goes.
The rich and the greedy will eat the futures of our young, working or middleclass. They do not care. Government will just think its just the market ‘naturally’ making winners ands losers and increasingly tell you that you made the wrong error in choosing your vocation – nothing to do with them.
I agree about the politics of care but it also needs to be the politics of principle and ethics and anti-monopolism. The care bit you espouse though needs to be finely crafted and tuned.
If politics is going to accept the capital order of the rich which involves creating winners and losers, then what is it going to do about the losers if it cannot be bothered to tame the winners and their criminally acquisitive behaviour ?
The first thing a new politics (or any politics) has to do is accept that losers will be created through no fault of their own if this system of forced acquisition is to be tolerated. Therefore, the losers need to be looked after – cared for by politics. Or they might become a nuisance or a threat.
To be honest, this is where we are now in my words at least. As Tim Snyder has pointed out (2024), the route we are on now is really a rich man’s future, not ours. John Gray has also pointed out that giving unlimited freedom to men (as I propose we see in the way markets are ran), turns them only into Gods, (2023, p.73) answerable to themselves only.
Hobbes again (Leviathan, Chapter 21) ‘…men have the liberty, of doing what their own reasons shall suggest, for the most profitable for themselves’ (from Gray, 2023, p. 16). Gray says that Hobbe’s observations were not cynical or just absurdist, but aimed at helping human beings protect themselves from each other – so you are on the right path to ask for a politics that cares because that’s what it should do.
All noted
Thanks
Much to agree with. I note that young people enjoy going to concerts & such like.
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/may/04/how-ticketmaster-swallowed-the-live-entertainment-scene
If politicos wanted to curry favour there is a simple solution – ban all ticketmasters etc (there is a mountain of legislation politicos could use – some of it covering organised crime – into which category Tickemaster et al seem to fall). Any/all venue could quite easily develop their own ticketing system = let a million flowers bloom.
I was familiar with Ticketmaster (& its unpleasant anti-competitive activites) in the 1990s – evidently things have got worse. There was rumours of violent threats back then.
“This is the world that neoliberalism has created.” & thus we need to de-create it, step by step, action by action – the monopolies need to be destroyed.
I have two daughters in their early 20s, all these challenges to the well-being of young people feel very close to home. Even the dismal political environment of my youth in Thatcher’s Britain in the 1980s seems like something to be somewhat nostalgic about nowadays. Since then we have lost such a lot. I was first eligible to vote in the 1983 general election, and since then I have always found politics to be disappointing. The human race took the wrong step years ago, and continue seemingly inexorably on an ever more dangerous trajectory. Just think what a better place the world could now be if, 40 years ago, we had heeded the warnings of those such as James Hansen and taken climate change seriously. However, we have reached a point where our polity is so antithetical to human and environmental well-being that disappointment is giving way to despair and disengagement, even desperation. The loss of hope is a terrible psychological burden on both individuals and society as a whole.
Apologies for posting twice:
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/may/03/mother-of-autistic-boy-left-with-10000-debt-after-breaching-dwp-rules-by-192-a-week
Another example of gross unfairness. Why not just deduct “excess earnings” from the allowance paid? Or would that be all too hard for the computer system to handle?
Despair – an outcome of what is, increasingly a heartless system – administered by heartless people (or at the very least those that adopt the “I’m just following orders” attitude – coupled to “the computer cannot be wrong”). There is something sick with the way in which society functions.
Agreed
Entirely understandable perceptions by your barista there. One thing that concerns me is: people need to discuss politics (not the institutionalised, party politics in cahoots with big business but real politics) but where is that discussion taking place today? Once it might have been between neighbours over the garden fence, or in churches or student groups or even pubs (though frowned upon there). Now, do these forums even exist any more? Online discussions can be a wonderful resource, but how can participation be widened to the people who rarely use online forums, maybe for lack of literacy or lack of money or lack of time?
I discuss politics in coffee shops, often
It is a painful experience listening to the haplessness of British politics on Trevor Phillips, on Sky News this morning. Nobody, panel or politician mentioned FPTP; or Scotland*. They do not know whether what is happening is a fundamental political change, or not. None of the panel or politicians are comfortable with the prospect of real change. None of them want to face it, or want to admit they don’t really want to face it. Towards the end, the panel struggled toward recognising the difficulty and scale of the political problem they were facing (by focusing on the inarticulate anger of voters); without realising that the worst of the problem was not the electorate (who are looking for something that looks like intelligent leadership); but the real problem was themselves, the politicians, journalists and commentators, who, in Britain are the least prepared to face up to seizing the issue and running with it. They try to exploit the anger of the electorate for their own unscrupulous politics. They know perfectly well that the politicians and parties are incapable of offering leadership, are looking to the electorate to lead them, and that the Westminster Cartel has finally lost the plot.
The current crisis of the Westminster Cartel has been exposed over a single political flare-up; the grooming gangs issue, after the Labour MP Lucy Powell’s interview blunder. This is worth thinking about. I confess that I know nothing about the grooming gang issue, I have not followed it, so have nothing wise on that matter to offer. But it seems to me it illuminates a related critical problem. The underlying problem here is the illustration of the complete detachment from the country, and the reality of British political parties.
There are apparently fifty towns with a historic grooming gang problem in England. The current crisis over the matter, however reveals a deeper truth about politics in Britain, and the nature of the Westminster Cartel. The major political parties have no real roots in these communities any more; or in most communities. If we live in an individualist culture, this applies ‘a fortiori’ to politics, politicians and political parties. Politicians used to change their Party rarely. Not now.
Politicians no longer emerge from the life of a community. They now float over the surface of the communities they represent. They do not know with sufficient intimacy and knowledge what is going on in the towns they supposedly represent. They know virtually nothing about the life the communities represent. Politicians need little connection with the communities they represent, in order to succeed. The Political Parties do not know anything about their constituencies, because they no longer have large numbers of active members who are also representative of their communities. The members do not pound the pavements in large numbers in elections, because such people are now rare in British politics. British political parties represent only small, shrinking and largely elderly memberships. They rely on broadcast and social media to communicate with the public. The British politics of Westminster and even in local politics is a virtual world; it exists nowhere beyond a screen, near you and convenient for you to access.
British politics is a world of spin, PR and propaganda. The rest is a desert.
Much to agree with
To make matters worse, social media is full of messages telling young people that if they’re struggling, it’s simply because they’re not working hard enough — that success just takes the “right mindset” or grinding harder. Meanwhile, the older generation often tells them to “get on with it” and stop whining. It creates a toxic culture where failure is blamed on the individual, while the real systemic problems go unchallenged. At the same time, a portion of young men are drifting in the opposite direction — getting radicalised, drawn to the far right and the false strength it promises.
Not everyone is buying into that crap narrative, though. I found this young guy’s perspective on the economy refreshingly honest — and at the same time, quietly devastating. (Gen Z Watching A Recession) https://youtu.be/-rNQ1POf1RI?si=hKerUoz6ixQmnC7-
Having two sons his age — and working with many young people facing the same struggles — makes it all feel painfully real. What’s even harder is not having any real answers, other than telling them they’ll have to organise and prepare for one hell of a fight.
I have sons his age
I think they believe I care
That does not necessarily make it easier
An excellent piece, Richard, thank you, I have shared. And some informed contributions from commenters, too.
At the start of the film (and I believe the book) trainspotting is the monologue of “choose life”. Choosing a career, home, etc. it’s a satirical look at middle class existence, which is then contrasted with the “something else” of essentialy a dopamine fix.
That was then. It’s quite sad to see it now.
30 years later, the young in many cases can’t “choose life” the opportunity just isn’t there. And so the “something else” may seen like the sensible option.
As the solution to the disfunction of the economy and society become less understood – (or wilfully not understood) – because its too awful to contemplate , the political project becomes more and more elusive for mainstream parties.
Just reading a review in LRB on the housing problem – the simplistic ‘build more homes ‘, is hopelessly inadequate, the quasi monopoly in the building industry, the widespread landlordism – which is making the rent problem and the landlord problem reinforcing each other.
It needs a coordinated system of rent control, social housing and incentives and taxes to begin to reduce housing wealth inequality between generations and income groups.
It perfectly rational for the young generation to feel politics just doesnt work – but we are really in the danger zone – if they are voting Reform.
Richard’s plea is merited – but its not only policts of care its also the politics of understanding – how to get society/economy to care.
Agreed
Thanks
This morning I got a survey from YouGov. I have to earn some extra pennies any way I can (!) since I’m on the old pension, and don’t have enough payments (due to not being able to work since 1992) to even get the pittance that that pays. Usually YouGov pays 50 points a survey. When you complete 500 points you can claim £50. Anyway, today’s survey was only for 25 points. It began by asking about supermarket shopping, but it finished with an interesting open ended question that gave you space to put your thoughts down, not just easy yes/no or other kind of survey questions. It was something like this:
What in your view is this country’s biggest problem? (or it might have been “difficulty”) Apologies for not remembering! Anyway, so far as I can remember this is what I wrote…
“The meanness and cruelty of this “Labour”government in its treatment of the poorest, and the old, sick and disabled. Especially Reeves (with her freebies/bribes of outings for her daughter) who implements this Liebour’s government’s policies.”
BTW, thanks to Mike Parr for the link to the Grauniad article on Ticketmaster. Smile. Or perhaps that should be Scream?
Thanks
The Merriam Webster Dictionary has two definitions which we might be well advised to promote/demand:
a) “an organisation or situation in which everyone is treated equally/(equitably) and has the right to participate equally in management, decision-making etc.
Might an alleged Democracy which does not have F. P. T. P. fail this definition?
b) “political, social, equality/(equity): the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges”
Might our [self-proclaimed] democracy fail this definition?
Like most human activities, Democracy has three phases:
1)Input
2) Process
3) Outcome
The above is the fashionably powerful/marketed chronological sequence, with an excessive emphasis on 1.
It is suggested that the more accurate but currently back-grounded importance sequence is:
1) Outcome
2) Process
3) Input
“As soon as politicians have learned to buy political support, including via the”public purse” and conditioned electorates to bribery and looting, the “democratic” process is reduced to the formation of “distributional” coalitions” – electoral majorities mortared together by a common interest in collectively advantageous patterns of theft and/or embezzlement.” [From Nick Land]
My “barista” conversation this week was with a young man from Pakistan-controlled Kashmir, in a non-franchise phone repair shop, selling refurbished phones, new accessories and refurbished old laptops, which is where I get my tech from (old laptops, slowing to a halt on Windows 10, too old for Windows 11, but which spring to life when converted to dual boot with Linux Mint xfce74).
We discussed tech monopolies, Linux, open source software, politics, religion, Jesus, trade (in particular, the Apple limits on 3rd party repairs/parts which seriously affects their business), tariffs, Yemen, Gaza, a personal tragedy, and the social, political and economic differences between Pakistan and China. When I entered the shop he was playing a very soothing track of sung Quranic recitation, which we also discussed.
It was a very special hour of quite intimate dialogue between 2 people with different ethnic, religious, linguistic, social and educational backgrounds and several decades of age gap. Trump & Fa***e (and probably Starmer) wouldn’t have known where to put themselves.
That’s the Great Britain I want to live in. It’s at serious risk right now.
I like conversations like that – and have many.
I have just come back from a walk through Ely with my twin brother. I think he was rather surprised by how many people I shared greetings with along the way – with an age span of 60+ years. I live in a community.
Might we be being moved further into fascism and further away from social democracy?
Might this article have some relevance?
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/05/02/the-people-want-socialism-not-fascism/
Interesting. Worth reading. Thank you.
“People, politics and despair” seems the appropriate place to post this:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/04/badenoch-says-more-children-not-immigration-will-help-with-ageing-population
It has been apparent since shortly after the “baby boom” ended that there was a demographic bulge coming down the line. Not only have successive governments not prepared for it in 6 decades, they’ve spent the bulk of that time creating conditions that have driven down birthrates. On current trajectory we’ll have approximately 50% more people of state pension age by 2050; in the interim, people will be retiring faster than they can be replaced by people leaving education.
But never fear, Badenoch has a plan, and Jenrick agrees with her; we need to encourage our current citizenry to have more children to deal with the aging population. Biology obviously not their strong subject then, because that won’t begin to tackle the problem until about 20 years after the incentives are in place. Justine Greening disagrees, she says she thinks there are enough children, we just have to “develop” them; which I can only presume means making them work 80 hours a week until they keel over before they can claim their pension.
Kick the can down the road for 2 decades, or refuse to acknowledge the problem; neoliberal “solutions” writ large.
These people, their politics make me despair.
This is an issue I need to give more attention to
Given that the unaffordable housing crisis is the most pressing problem facing the younger generation do you think a development land tax could enable the government to buy the land sitting in the land banks of speculative housing developers and the land they have negotiated option agreements on ( these agreements enable them to hide the true size of their land holdings). If this land was then transferred to community land trusts , these cooperatives could provide factory built genuinely affordable housing. As an 81 year old retired construction professional I am certain that the current government policy of using the private sector to increase affordable housing supply is doomed to failure.
I think, properly designed, such a tax could help. Very tight time constraints on development after planning would help more I.e, develop or sell at pre-development value to the state.
A good article and alot of very interesting and truthful comments.
I remember having a conversation during the run-up to the last election and saying ‘i’m sure there are people going into politics that actually have the right ideas and the right intent, however having worked their way up the political ladder and finally been invited into the inner circle, they are then summarily taken off to a side room where they are told forget everything you know, forget everything you think, this is how the world really works, this is who is really calling the shots, you can either follow orders and ride the gravy train or walk away’.
I thought people were supposed to go into politics as a form of altruism, funny how alot of the so called leaders see their wealth significantly increase.