Rishi Sunak's Millennial Problem: or, 'When there's nothing left to conserve, why vote Conservative?'
Just prior to the New Year, the Financial Times produced a remarkable albeit small piece discussing something that I’ve been alluding to on this page for a while now, and validates much of what I’ve been theorising about the ‘Future of Conservatism’.
It was one of the main focal points of my last podcast at the beginning of December, actually.
Essentially, the Conservatives - on both sides of the Atlantic - are experiencing ‘an age problem’: or, the current generation that might vote Conservative in any large number may be the last generation that votes Conservative in any large number.
The reason being?
Here in the UK, it seems, that it comes as a consequence of nearly 13 years of Conservative party misrule. That’s the simplistic, ‘great-for-social media clicks but without much research’ view.
The other, more complex [some might say controversial] view, is that many opportunities that presented themselves to people of the post-war [so-called ‘Boomer’] generation are simply not available to their children and (especially) grandchildren from the ‘Millennial’ and ‘Gen-Z’ demographics.
An explanation [ironically] rests in the definition of the word ‘conservative’ - or its verb equivalent ‘to conserve’ and what - by way of fiscal policy - generations past and present have been allowed ‘to conserve’.