to the left, to the left
Perhaps because I was lucky enough to have been brought up in a staunchly left-wing household where both parents were proud trade-unionists, or maybe it was undertaking a business & industrial relations degree in Sheffield during the miners’ strike (the 80s one not the 70s!) but either way I’ve always found myself on the left of society and firmly believing in collective bargaining and multi-party corporatism & collectivism. And so it used to be with a) most of the young and b) as near as damn it, all of the student population. But what’s going on with the yuff of today?
Read the press these days though and you’re way more likely to come across the generation Y of twentysomethings sounding like devout Thatcherites! According to several recent polls, Tory support from those born between 1980 – 2000 has more than doubled to over 20% over the last five years. Thankfully, they do appear to support gay rights and gender equality, and reject the ramblings and vagaries of UKIP’s Farage (and let’s start rhyming it with garage!) but they’re up there with the Chingford Skinhead (aka Norman Tebbit) when it comes to welfare and benefit reform. Off with the scroungers’ heads. Are there no workhouses? And the icing on the cake? My son, who’s reading History & Politics is as blue as they come. My, how I’ve failed.
