"I think it's time we - stop, children, what's that sound ? Everybody look what's going down. There's battle lines being drawn; Nobody's right if everybody's wrong. Young people speaking their minds, Getting so much resistance from behind.." From 'For what it's worth' by Buffalo Springfield.
Neil Kinnock made a speech in Bridgend in June 1983 that carries an ironic resonance for voters today. Attempting to stoke fears of a re-elected Thatcher government, his jeremiad included the following admonitions:
If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday..I warn you that you will have poverty - when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that can't pay in an economy that can't pay. I warn you that you must not expect work.. I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old."
Last Thursday, Britain posted its first budget deficit for a January since records began, as government spending exceeded revenues by £4.3 billion. The previous day, the number of people claiming joblessbenefits rose to its highest level since April 1997 - the year that Labour was elected. On the same day, despite a government order for local authorities to disclose the earnings of all executives, those authorities declined to list the names and salaries of those employees paid more than £50,000 a year, arguing that they could be subjected to "personalised attacks and mischief making".
Seemingly every year, employers complain that educational standards amongst school leavers and university graduates appear to be falling, even as the exam regime points to continually higher attainment. Since 1997, spending on the NHS has increased by roughly 87% in real terms, without a concomitant rise of any form in its efficiency. For those on index-linked public sector pensions, retirement carries few financial concerns. For those in the private sector, the future is altogether more uncertain – like that for Reader?s Digest UK, after the British edition of the magazine went into administration following the breakdown of negotiations over its UK pension fund and its £125 million deficit. The Financial Times on Wednesday reported a warning from David Willetts, the shadow cabinet universities and skills spokesman, that:
“Baby boomers hold so much of Britain?s wealth that a prosperity gap is opening between the generations, with people born…
