Thought for the Week: Democracy threatened by impoverishing the young

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Gavin Oldham

Thought for the Week: Democracy threatened by impoverishing the young

Gavin Oldham
Original Broadcast:

Thought for the Week

Thought for the Week: Democracy threatened by impoverishing the young
Turnout at the 2024 general election was 59.7%, the lowest at a General Election since 2001, and 7.6 percentage points lower than in 2019. We are all keenly aware of the disproportionate number of Labour MPs (63.2%), notwithstanding their low overall polling (33.7%), but only now are we starting to see how young people have been disenfranchised by their poverty. This correlation between youth and poverty supports our consistent and strong calls for inter-generational rebalancing, and the need for more long-term focus in western democracies. If we don't take action, we run the risk of oscillating between an over-sized self-interested state driven by socialism and self-interested reactionaries driven by populism. Background music: 'Generations Away' by Unicorn Heads

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Topics: UK, World (in Politics)


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