That, I don’t know. The problem is that a lot of the policies that are so harming the young (or advantaging the old over the young) only do so through very convoluted methods that are rather hard to explain in a soundbite and/or are never really mentioned outside of obscure blogs on the Internet (ahem) , and the odd Guardian “Comment is Free” article. Meanwhile, those who propose them (by and large the Conservative party) have been and are really, really good at persuading people of the merits of their viewpoints, even if it is by obfuscation or by simply not mentioning downsides, and through leveraging an absolutely frightening PR machine.

Even leaving that aside, there’s very few turkeys that are going to knowingly vote for Christmas; the over-55s being the powerful voting bloc that they are, not many of them are going to vote for a party which says outright “we don’t want to keep legally mandated above inflation rises in the state pension so you’re not going to get them any more and we’re also going to take actions which will knock the price of your house down because it’s too high, enjoy your negative equity oh and say goodbye to your kids’ inheritances too”. Very few people vote to knowingly harm their own interests or lifestyle. That’s part of the problem; the “tough decisions” being made are all being made by and on behalf of people who don’t suffer the consequences of them in order to protect their own positions.

The best that can be done, in my view, is explaining to those who currently don’t form such a large voting bloc but are the ones who are going to be the most fucked by these policies exactly how they are being fucked by them, that an alternative is possible and that the way to get it is to vote for candidates that will help them (even if it requires holding your nose), campaign, explain to their peers and (most importantly) get other people like them to get out the vote too. Social media is helping somewhat but nowhere near enough to truly make a difference (see: GE 2015). It would also help somewhat if the Labour party could get its arse in gear with regards to getting its messages out in a competent way, which sadly they are failing miserably at.