The young have cast their vote and now must fight for change
COLUMNIST
WEll, they took their time but young people finally woke up and realised they can help shape the future. Coming out in droves, at the encouragement of a radical Labour message from Jeremy Corbyn, they stood up and voted.
Everyone was shocked. Received wisdom is that young people don’t bother to vote and that anything vaguely to the left of Tony Blair is the kiss of death for Labour.
I’m not one to shatter the hopeful message that our young people have rejected a world where they are encumbered by unemployment, aggressive wage restraint, student debt, unaffordable housing and open-ended austerity – but they need to put their mouths where their votes are and carry on fighting.
They need to keep engaged with politics – if they don’t want lifelong jobs wiping the backsides of wealthier members of older generations sitting on their savings thanks to jobs found in a time of relative plenty when university was free.
Corbyn may have won the campaign with his radical message, but let’s not forget he lost the election and our young people are predicted to be the first generation since World War II to become worse-off than their parents.
They pay more for education and housing and are less likely to get jobs.
It was only two years ago that some young people supported that other radical thinker Russell Brand, who announced he had never voted, never would and urged them to follow his infantile lead. He later backtracked, saying he had been impressed by Ed Miliband, but that’s Russell Brand for you – fickle.
Young people can be fickle too. They are busy working, studying, socialising and trying to make sense of the world. To keep the mass on board, you have to keep them energised with the message that they do have the opportunity and numbers to change things.
Whatever your political colour, anyone who cares about the future of young people should be concerned at the dangerous concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few.
As Bernie Sanders said in a speech at the Hay Festival last week, it is not so much politicians but a tiny group of millionaires controlling them that we need to worry about.
Just eight of the world’s richest billionaires control the same wealth between them as the poorest half of the globe’s population, according to Oxfam.
In a report published to coincide with the start of the week-long World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year, Oxfam described as “beyond grotesque” the fact that a handful of rich men headed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates are worth $426bn (£350bn), equivalent to the wealth of 3.6bn people.
Essentially, these eight people have the same wealth as 50% of the world’s poorest people and carry hefty political power with all that economic muscle.
We are living in a time of Dickensian wealth gaps which will only widen unless we act to change them. Thatcher’s message that wealth trickles down has been shown to be false. People guard their money jealously. They need to be told to share. If we are not careful, we will be in a race to the bottom while the wealthy demand ever greater returns at the expense of our children’s future.
Big business is hellbent on getting ever higher returns for wealthy owners and top executives. Yawning pay gaps are brushed aside with the veiled threat that the young should be pleased to have jobs.
They are supposed to feel grateful for low wages and any hope of affordable housing is quashed by a lobby of older people living in the green belt who say it would be an outrage for affordable houses to be built on their green and pleasant land.
Never mind that fracking for gas, if not affordable homes for the young, may be allowed. That, of course, will bring money – for a few.
The World Economic Forum has warned that rising inequality and social polarisation are two of the biggest risks to the global economy in 2017.
It is also a risk to peace and stability. Just look at the unrest and war around the world. Poverty and inequality are fertile breeding grounds for terrorism.
Our young people have been patient. They have, broadly, accepted the austerity that our rulers said was needed to tackle UK and world debt, even when youth services and education suffered cuts. Their voting pattern last week suggested they may not be patient much longer if politicians disregard the direction of their voting.
If their votes last week are more than just a one-off, the message is clear – young people are sick of being told there may be jam tomorrow. It seems they have finally realised they can work to redistribute some of the jam already here.
Bolstered by votes from the young, Jeremy Corbyn won an extra 30 seats including Kensington, one of London’s wealthiest constituencies which has never been in Labour hands before.
That is a complete turnaround from two years ago. In 2015 only 12% of young people said they were certain to get to the ballot box and only half of all 19 to 24-year-olds were even registered to vote compared with 94% of people aged 65 and over and 90% of people aged 55-64. That has changed. Since Theresa May called for an election on April 18, 1.05 million 18 to 24-year-olds registered to vote, including a quarter of a million on the cut-off day for being eligible to do so.
The turnout of 18 to 24-year-olds to vote last Thursday was 66.4%, according to Sky News, compared to 43% in the 2015 general election.
In a poll, more than half (55%) said they would vote Labour, compared to only one in six (18%) who said they would vote Conservative.
If they continue to be engaged in politics, we could be in for a few more surprises.