‘It’s Sunday lunchtime in South Kensington…’

Posted on 2010/11/08 , tagged as

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‘… and at the Battle Of Ideas – the big annual rammy of political thought staged by Claire Fox and her Institute Of Ideas – the session on “Generation Wars” is drawing to a close, when a young woman rises to ask a question. “I just want to know,” she says, “what I should be able to expect. I’m 32, and I’ve just got married. But both of us have insecure jobs. We can’t afford to buy a house or flat; and it feels as if we can’t afford to start a family, although we would like to. So am I expecting too much? Or do I have a right to these things, which my parents had at my age?”

There’s a silence; and then many responses but little agreement, in a session built around a recent book – Jilted Generation, by Ed Howker and Shiv Malik – that brilliantly analyses the problems faced by today’s generation of young adults, but mischievously hints that the “baby boomers”, born between 1945 and 1965, have selfishly devoured the prosperity they should have been passing on to their children.’

Joyce McMillan reports from a Jilted Generation event in London – read more here.