The ‘clash of generations’, depicted above by Anton Emdin, was the bestselling issue of The Spectator last year. It’s a new and potent force in British politics: the idea that the young will end up having to foot the NHS and care bills for the old: the working-age will have to support the pension-age as they sit in their hugely valuable houses and run up NHS bills. There is talk about ‘intergenerational fairness’, one of the more sinister ideas to emerge of late, and one worth rebutting. I look at this in my Daily Telegraph column today, which has drawn a response from the author of that cover story, The Economist’s Daniel Knowles. Here are my main points:
1. Oh my God, we’re all going to live. The biggest change to society in my lifetime won’t be anything to do with politics, or even economics, but ageing. People will live substantially longer than their parents, and be mentally alert and physically active to a far greater stage.
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