Young Brits — We’re fucked.
@Bloonface’s post on the young, angry generation is as articulate as it is infuriating. He writes that young people of today flood to support socialists such as Sanders and Corbyn because they face grim realities and bleak futures.
He’s right. I’m 25, and I’m really fucking angry. Why? Where to start?
How about with something topical. The NHS.
Yesterday, Jeremy Hunt announced that his new contract for junior doctors would be imposed on them, despite their appeals. A contract which will effectively reduce junior doctors’ pay during unsociable working hours, cut wages in key specialisms and reduce staffing on already stretched wards. It’s a contract which forces many of our young, bright, medical professionals to consider leaving the NHS. It could, it will, bring the NHS to its knees.
The NHS was formed in 1948, not far off when my dad was born. He was there for its inception. He will probably be around for its disintegration. The people who are meant to be protecting our free, successful healthcare system (in 2014 the UK’s was ranked best among the world’s 11 most industrialised nations while spending the least) are paving the way for private healthcare.
These people are Conservative MPs, the majority of whom have enjoyed free, excellent standards of healthcare for most of their lives. They sell off our NHS for their own financial gain. They profit from its demise.
This same government has cut public spending across the board, scrapped university grants, while tripling fees. They cut taxes on those who earn over £150,000, while young people work long hours, on zero-hour contracts, or rely on food banks to survive.
They refuse to build more affordable housing or to cap rents when young people can’t afford homes, fail to provide security to tenants who are evicted every 90-seconds, the list goes on.
But the Tories don’t hate young people (at least, not openly). So why does the government appear to disadvantage the lost generation at every step?
With every issue, the answer is always the same: they do it because it directly benefits them.
- Why sell the NHS?
70 Tory politicians have ties to public health companies. When the tories sell NHS contracts to these companies, they take a cut.
2. Why triple university fees, while replacing grants with more loans?
Students don’t vote. Students (of which the majority are young people) don’t turn up at the polling stations during general elections in the same numbers as the over 55s. It’s not in the Tories’ interest to support a minority.
3. Why not build more affordable houses, or cap rents?
39% of Tory MPs are landlords, (192 MPs are landlords in fact), who benefit directly from increased house prices and rising rents. Both of which are caused by increased demand, which in turn is down to low supply of houses. So there’s no interest in building more houses.
4. Why do nothing about zero-hour contracts?
Because it allows David Cameron to win over more voters by claiming he’s created 2.5 million jobs.
5. Why do Tories help the rich and ignore rising poverty?
Before the financial crash the wealthiest 1% of UK households owned about a third of total wealth in the form of stocks. After the crisis they owned more than a half. The Conservative party receive large donations from a number of high-worth individuals. They are a party of wealthy MPs, (MP wages rose to £74,000 under the Tories, triple the national average wage). The wealth of the cabinet is now estimated at nearly £70 million. That’s among just 29 ministers.
I’m angry because corruption and deceit is rife in our country’s government, and the young and the poor are facing the brunt of it. I’m angry because the wealth of the 1% is rising faster than ever, while thousands resort to food banks and Job Seekers’ allowance.
Bloonface is right. We are a pissed off, struggling, hung-out-to dry generation. We support Corbyn, not because we’re “in fairy land” or frothing-at-the-mouth Marxists, but because he talks in real terms about better housing, renationalised transport and greater equality for the country. We dare to dream of safe homes, decent jobs and maybe even universal-basic income.
Frankly, he’s our frantic, desperate hope of a better society.