Hands off
As mentioned earlier, I listened to James Graham on Resonance FM last night. As well as talking politics generally, he was promoting Hands Off Our Future, his new website (and forum) promoting the issue of generational equity. With pensions - erroneously often not considered a young persons’ issue - in the news today, it’s well-timed. With older people much more likely to vote, there is a danger of the country providing more and more benefits to well-off retired people at the expense (literally) of debt-saddled younglings who can’t get on the housing ladder. With plenty of pressure groups speaking for older people, it’s almost a taboo to suggest that - for example - free TV licences for the over-74s are a gratuitous subsidy for many comfortable septagenarians.
Of course, the issues aren’t as straightforward as that and stripping away all non-means-tested benefits for older people isn’t the answer, but there’s an important debate to be had about the legacy - environmental and economic - that future generations will be left with.
The highlight of the radio show for me, incidentally, was James’s conjuring up of a media-hungry Mark Oaten sitting at home working his way through a pile of KitKats in the hope of finding a golden ticket…
Younglings!
They killed the younglings!
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Comment by Shell — May 26, 2006 @ 1:56 pm