Did you hear that the UK was in recession was a question that popped up at the pub in the last week or so. The resounding replies were “and waters wet.” A generation of young people simultaneously not bothered. If you ask our parents though, the word recession will often muster a haunting reaction. So what makes young people so unbothered.
At this point it feels like you can only beat a dead horse so much. That sentence also summarises the morale of young people across the nation. Theres an overwhelming feeling of not knowing how to feel. Should we be motivated to work harder to bring this nation back to the strong economy it deserves, or shall we feel frustrated that during the cost of living crisis major supermarket chains made record profits at the expense of working class people and a government that stood by whilst it happened.
The weekends that young people use to enjoy out with friends have turned into a two day recovery in which all we do is rest up for the next working week ahead. We’re feeling let down by the world around us. Rising rents and unaffordable homes on salaries that never keep up with the spiralling cost of utilities and food. My grandparents always say that their generation before us had it so good that we are paying the consequences for it. The biggest consequence of which is housing.
This is by no means a new issue, in fact open up any other major tabloid and you’ll likely read an article about young people struggling. But, look at the author and it’ll be a middle aged person, who most probably owns their home and earns a respectable high salary. Where you want the real answers are out there in the pubs and on social media where the tides are starting to shift.
A notable point someone had mentioned whilst out the other week was that its hard to trust politicians when, in 2022, 113 MPs generated significant rental income from second properties, and that MPs are three times more likely to own a second home. Another voice popped up trying to find a logical reason with this, but got shot down, surprisingly with the Churchill quote “you cannot reason with a tiger when your head is in its mouth.” It felt like an homage to the two recent crushing by-election results for the Conservatives where even traditional Conservative strongholds switched sides.
These results in my view are foreshadowing how young people will make their voices and feelings heard on the recession. Even I, a traditional Conservative believer, am struggling to have trust in this Governments ability to solve any crises. The sense of frustration is compounded on the release of Michael Gove’s press statement where he says the Conservatives will ease the housing crisis in the coming months to swing the vote of the next generation. My words to Mr Gove though. You’ve held significant government positions since becoming Secretary of State for Education in 2005, extraditing yourself from the mess that you put us in, and then celebrating it, is a thinly veiled ploy to win voters who, for what you don’t know, can see past your charade.
I can’t give you any answers on how to solve this housing crisis, and nor do I really wish to, for as long as young people have made suggestions, it has always fallen to deaf ears. Young people don’t care about the recession because we understand we have no way of managing it. However, in a few months’ time when the general election is called, you’ll see the recession results in another way. My bets will be it it’ll show up not as red in the economy, but a red wave through the Commons. Any last remaining cards in Sunak’s hands need to be the ace of housing otherwise Labour will be all in and clear up with a Royal Flush. It’s over to you Sunak and Gove, we know you don’t want to be warming those back benches.
