Less than a generation ago, students could get a degree without accruing a lifetime of debt. Some received maintenance grants to give them the confidence to go university, often as the first members of their family to do so.
House prices were around three times average incomes, or maybe four at a push. I remember writing stories in 2003 about housing in parts of Sheffield costing more than £100,000 for the first time. Saving for a deposit was possible within a year or two.
More recently, young people could travel, work and live all over Europe.
These basics are much harder to get today, thanks to the actions of a generation of leaders who benefitted from them and compounded the interest.
Rather than understand, or even acknowledge, these challenges, the beneficiaries feed a sense that if young people stopped protesting and worked harder (like we did) all will be fine.
Worried about the climate crisis? You’re a snowflake! Need a £50,000 deposit to get on the housing ladder, on top of your £1,500 a month rent? Stop eating avocados! And so, it goes on. Statements and sponsored social ads speak to an older, home-owning group of voters but don’t get near addressing the challenges facing an entire generation.
This is the lens through which I see Rishi Sunak’s weird and hurriedly compiled weekend announcement about rolling out National Service for 18-year-olds.
Whether the policy would work, and others ask questions here, here and here that I won’t repeat, is barely relevant. This is part of a pattern of behaviour from a political class that appears to prize spin above delivery.
Spin like you’re (not) winning
Shaped by advisors who have mostly worked in the media or Westminster, this mindset is disproportionately focused on news headlines. It can’t – or won’t – consider the long-term impact of inaction, allowing crises to develop.
We see this all around us, in NHS waiting lists, the performance of water companies and degradation of the public realm. In my professional field, I heard the warnings to ministers over the abolition of grant funding for social housing in 2011. This caused a complete collapse in the provision of the most affordable tenure across England. But the warnings didn’t fit the narrative, sadly. The cost of housing is the price everyone pays for this.
In the spirit of spin, the Conservatives shared the National Service press release with media before the wider public, or their own candidates. There’s no further detail available that I can see. It led the news in government supporting titles, which is also part of a pattern.
Sunak calling an election last week leaves us with just 1,000 hours to save Britain, according to The Telegraph. In clinging on to the last vestiges of a badly failed consensus, their tone is increasingly and embarrassingly desperate.
Spin not working
Yes, we are in election campaign mode. We need to see bold measures, not slogans.
But this narrow-minded thinking that places the hard yards of policy development on a news grid has failed us.
It’s taken away the infrastructure of opportunity – places to learn and live – that give people a stake in their communities.
It’s polarised society and made us more divided. Statements like this made through the media risk feeding that division rather than addressing it.
Uniquely, it’s made the country poorer than it was 10 years ago. Inflation dropping to 2.3% makes a good campaign slogan, but it’s insulting to suggest that it addresses the big challenges facing us.
There are no quick fixes for any of this. National Service for 18-year-olds won’t touch the sides. But it helpfully highlights how the government and its media supporters fundamentally misunderstand the country they seek to shape.
I hope those with ambitions to lead take note. Most people know it’s not easy, but they won’t forgive more of the same.
Government-by-headline is no strategy for getting us out of this mess.