YOUNGER

The best thing about being young is that no one, NO ONE can tell you what to do and no one understands you.
The worst thing about being young is perhaps that you already know the older generation DO understand you and they know you dont yet know what you dont know, and are exploiting you for it because that’s all old people have in their lives, right?

Energy price cap going up 50%, average bill now 1900 quid a year.

Bank of England raising interest rates today. Daily government corruption in the land of the gated communities. Andrew Tate may be in prison, but he is still a hero to the youth. Because no one else speaks their language. He is their only hope. It’s either him, or some mealy-mouthed white saviour middle class quasi liberal from the people’s republic of Haringey who once did a day’s volunteering in a food bank and is painfully reminiscent of the salvation army virgin played by Jean Simmons in Guys and Dolls.

So I get to the location early ahead of the rest of the team, for sunset shots across rolling countryside, and I see a pretty field, and, like an old bloke, I pull over to get a shot.

And there's these kids hanging out, blasting out D&B, livestreaming their party from a field and going "you gonna take our picture, mister?"

Well of course I was.

And me thinking - look at you. Fed on a diet of 'everything is possible' and 'just do it' and nothing is new or mysterious because advertisers have monetised your every movement and the internet has laid it all bare, and all your joy and energy and youth ought to be sucked away by now by the lazy, complacent middle-aged establishment that has kept you under house arrest for a year without a glimmer of honest hope. And look at you, you're still finding ways to be free, to be creative, to share and to be loving and be together. I hope you tear the whole thing up.

Because it's not broken Britain it is defrauded, carpet-bagged Britain. They are laughing at you. And every time you shake your head angrily or complain or discuss politics in the way we did say ten, fifteen years ago when our vote might have meant something, they are laughing at you. Every time you say Boris is disgusting, or Nadine is a joke, or Rhys Mogg is a whatever, every time you say Boris must go, like it would make any kind of difference, they are laughing at you.

Travel the country as I do and you'll see there is a sizeable chunk of people with second homes, with second, environment-clogging cars, with good schools and private investments. All those pretty places I visit, full of rich people who got rich out of making your life, and the lives of others a bit less comfortable. You are working harder so they dont have to.

Often the ones who are older claim bewildered blamelessness as their own youngsters struggle to get by while they treat themselves to that ultimate climate-killer and inequality-denial, the winter cruise. This won't really touch them, because the profit from their offset investments will cover it. Anyone who owns a fisherman's cottage will still be able to afford their farrow and ball paint. Anyone who might once upon a time have lived an ordinary modest life in one of said cottages however is now royally stuffed and probably wont make the rent.

It is to echo a quote from way back in 1845 - a time disturbingly similar to now in the poor understanding of the greed and corruption this country's wealthy really excel at - what Disraeli called The Two Nations - the Rich, and the Poor

Thats why we have so little state and so much charity. Remember that when you're running a marathon, or signing a petition. You already paid taxes and insurance to help the people you are trying to help. But you voted for a government that would siphon that money off. You already had a system, once upon a time that wasnt broken. But in the rush for short term gain, that system is all but dismantled. So lets not kid ourselves, please. We all know. Charity is for people who can afford to pay tax AND have some spare time left over, thereby robbing the recipient of the dignity the state once conferred on them

and we just let it happen, shrugged and accepted it, and continue with the ludicrous fiction of democracy, resolving absurdly that we will vote for something better come the next election