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Generation Y: why young voters are backing the Conservatives
"If you want a good idea of where Britain might be headed, go to Peterborough. The city centre is smattered with the usual high-street names, and scores of empty shops (51, at the last count). Plenty of people complain about youth unemployment. The area of the city around a thoroughfare called Lincoln Road is a little Poland, smattered with businesses that also see to the needs of people from Portugal, the Baltic states, and more. Mention immigration, and you tend to get two kinds of response: tributes from recently arrived people to the kind of life that's possible in the UK, and angry, sullen opinions from locals who think advantages and opportunity are flowing in the wrong direction."
(Rest of the article: here)
Some scary shit.
I can buy it in a minor way. Have a five minute conversation with some of my work collegues and you'll reveal anti-immigrant, anti-benefits attitudes quite quickly but, more importantly, have a ten minute conversation and you can poke holes in their reactionary beliefs and make them actually start thinking about things. I think most young people in Britain haven't ever felt the power of organised labour and have been bombarded by reactionary propaganda for most of their lives. Unfortunately for the Guardian no-one young wants to vote for the Labour Party because for my generation they were the folks to introduce tuition fees and invade Iraq but there is definitely room to build something alternative to the mainstream parties.
Modern democracy is nothing but the freedom to preach whatever is to the advantage of the bourgeoisie - Lenin
In fairness to them, they are in effect just believing what they are told to believe. i mean that lad at the end who said that he 'should have tried harder' and blamed himself. Its actually a lot easier to blame yourself, because really that's what people expect you to do. I don't know if its any different anywhere else, but in the UK if you moan about the state of things. people always say that the problem is yours. That's my experience anyway...Im mean were british for gods sake! how dare we show dissent to our ever so righteous overlord superiors!
Young people are still less likely to vote for the Conservatives than any other age group. That is still important to keep in mind.
And how many of those young people voting Tory are doing so simply to recognise and further their class interest? Obviously we have to be wary of simplistic generational politics.
There is no surprise that rich music stars and celebrities (Adele, fucking Harry Styles, whatever) might vote Tory so they can keep more of their million$, especially if there is no stigma attached to doing so anymore. The media and cultural scene is less politicized than it was under Thatcher.
And another thing: young people are aspirational and ambitious, and want to get on. They are hungry for success and to prove themselves. So of course they will be receptive to the Tory message of encouraging strivers, of encouraging dynamism against complacency etc., especially since the Labour left doesn't really talk about these issues and has no contrasting take on how these values can be realised.
for freedom and peace
Strangely enough Adele admitted that she is 'labor through and through' despite having a hissy fit over the tax band. Harry Styles on the other hand is probably one of the most punch-able persons in history.
I would say there is still a 'Tory' stigma that exists. A lot of the people i've grown up with aren't exactly from the most radical side of town, but even among their circles it is still a bit awkward when someone outs themselves as a Tory.
An interesting fact about "rugged individualists" is that they hardly have any individual identity whatsoever any more. They all think and say and do and buy the same things, because it makes them ruggedly individual to do so.
I do notice that in the time of the Great Recession the language has changed to reflect how increasingly out of reach "the American dream" is for most. Instead of "rugged individualists" now the psy-oops emphasize the unattained, the unfulfillment of the goals, of "aspirational" "strivers".
Even now where I live most people (locals at least) still vote labour - because their parents and grandparents did, I suppose. We've got some of the lowest electoral turnout in the country in Hull though - probably because labour have been entrenched here for the best part of fifty years.
The majority of people I know around my age are pretty apolitical, and trot out the same old "oh they're all the same" arguments. Hell, most of the people I know who do actually vote just vote for what everyone else seems to vote for. I'd say that maybe less than 10% of people I know are politicised in any meaninful way, and too often that politicisation just means trying to defend lab-lib-con policies.
The most political person I know is actually an old friend of mine and has actually run in the council elections - unfortunately, for UKIP
This. Which is a bit strange as the tories ended up getting power in the local council last election.
I fear that there has been a bit of a shift to the far right among youth, but i think it will be short lived if i'm honest. Funnily enough, the worst thing that could happen to the far right parties in terms of getting support would be to actually get elected. Basically as it would be very obvious to most people who voted for that they too would be exactly the same as the so called 'establishment' they all hate now. If the think that the will make a difference, despite their fierce (and mostly redundant) rhetoric, they are kidding themselves, and that the same whether in or out of the EU too.
its no surprise given the huge propaganda campaign against poor folk, those on benefits and immigrants etc. add to this the fact that working class confidence and representation was destroyed by thatcher and then continued on by her successors and then the fact that there is no organized socio-political alternative for people to turn to, whether that is on the ground or even an in-government reformist rhetorical sense. people are left choosing in which way they would like to be punched in the face, especially younger and less informed people who are merely at the mercy of the tabloid press or the tv when it comes to their political information. 'labour fucked it, let's go for the tories. tories fucked it, back to labour'.
I'm the Laird of the land, I'm hot like Pol Pot.'A true white liberal.' - Sword and Shield (on me)
'i am a communism fer a long years.' - twenty percent tip
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It's less generation Y and more generation "Y bother?".
The youth of today, if informed, do not have any proper representative party for their views, such is the gap between old and new generations. Those who aren't vote for the party their parents voted for.
The so called european left doesn't defend anymore the workers neither represent them, only engage in populist policies to increase (and buy) electorate. I can't see why voting conservative in such a context where the conservative versus progressive, left versus right dichotomy, all but disappeared.
I'm not british but this reflects completely the situation where I live, here the term champagne socialist fits perfectly.
Forgive my ignorance but what alternative options to labour, the torries, and the liberals are there? Do they have minor parties in Britain? Those three have atrocious track records.
