UK election 2017: Will young people swing it?

any of the choices in this election are familiar ones left versus right state versus the market leave versus remain but this time it's also choice between young and old after eight years of austerity paying to pensioners benefits and Social Care have become issues of fairness so has two resumes controversial manifesto still conflict between the generations tomorrow we'll be discussing these issues at more length with an audience of over six years in under 30 s in Wolverhampton but tonight our political editor Gary Gibbon has been a Warsaw the West Midlands talking it over with a 77 year old pensioner the factory worker in the twenties we are the only party prepared to face up to the reality of our aging society they're now picturing young against all have older voters been draining away resources from the young as the contract between the generations broken down is June the 8th the moment to start fixing it Peter Taylor worked for 37 years as a clerk on the railways got a redundancy package when he was 54 he's now 77 I put my lump sum into a bond which is still untouched today I'm not such did we were blessed we had so many industries with him to come find to the Midlands so we could choose employment I don't think the people can't young people can today I struggle I feel like I'm missing out on a life because I'm always working and week in week out sometimes I've just gotten nothing to spend them I want to spend it on Sophie Grundy is 25 working just as hard as Peter Taylor did but economists say hers could be the first generation to earn less in a working lifetime than the one before it I work in a factory I like parts of car it's minimum wage but I have to make a certain amount of part of an hour to get that minimum knowledge if I was better pays it would give me more opportunity to save for the courses that I wanted to do but at the minute that's that's unavailable because I haven't got the money to pay for the courses just feel like I'm working all the time I'm not really getting anywhere so spit for Australian and when we brought these two generations of Walsall together it was clear their experience of pay was very different I've been something the same way it's done the same way - yeah never happen usually lexically you do it had a sliding scale every year and you'd have an increment every year and we caught on in this election they just started talking quite a lot about these issues and I have fairness between the generations is yes this is suddenly Yammer it's ignited hasn't it in the last few weeks I noticed there yeah about time too giving yes definitely I think so I think we should we should look at the disparity the hair can we help because surely you know I'm not well-off but I could afford probably to eat out probably once a week probably you couldn't do that no I used to disparity many of today's pensioners benefited from the heyday of company pensions and house price rises but layered on top of that has been a shift in government resources between the generations from younger to older you see it most clearly in the benefits budget look at government spending per head of population on benefits over the last 40 years and you see spending on children goes up until 2010 and then comes down likewise on working age benefits up until 2010 and then the cuts hit but spending on older people carries on beyond 2010 sailing up and analysis by the resolution foundation suggest manifestos just published wouldn't offer those graph lines very much I think we don't need the fuel payments probably not the bus pass probably could flag for our bus passes those things familiy personally and people in a final salary pension should be able to afford those themselves I'm sure and some what you're saying but I think that obviously you've worked and you know you've worked really hard so I think even though you might not need those things I think we deserve them for so food to say that I'm humble really gets to me I think maybe other people my age would probably be like oh well you know and probably have a moan about it but they've like this is just my opinion pension benefits originally rose to tackle pension of poverty but we daeun income for pensioners now is higher than it is for the rest of the population so why did governments continue to channel extra bunks to pensioners look at voter turnout figures since the mid 60s and you can see the over 65s reliably turning out eighty percent way back in the 60s virtually the same figure in the last general election compare that with the under 25 they were 80 percent turning out back in the 60s and they drifted away lost interest in the whole process only 43 percent of them voting in the last general election do you think that maybe people were bribing older voters with all these I didn't I didn't say that way but now probably what you're getting the advice to the younger generation later no he's dead please vote even if the intergenerational contract is rebuilt in coming years and other crisis could be looming when today's young workers themselves upon the retirement half-life is called now pension and that's basically 1% of what I earn we cut goes in so like on my face if it'll be like it's always adoption I'll be the last one at the bottom and it's usually about two pounds something that goes away I wish and do you have an idea when that will provide a big enough kitty to retire on probably never crunching the numbers if Sophie wants to get a pension the size of Peters she'd have to work until she's 89 a sign perhaps of another generational crisis looming before we've even sorted out this one right well let's go to our under 30s first to see how your future in your economic future is affecting the way you vote Katherine parks do you feel there is a injustice yeah a lot of the political parties seem to focus more on pensioners because they go out to vote where as you see the end of 25 being left out the living minimum wage you know a fifty thousand pounds worth of student that I have no savings no chance of being able to afford a house anytime soon and yet they've got a triple lock on their pensions that they're constantly being appealed to whereas we're just left out and what what about what about brooches and I think Greg has been a big factor I mean I've actually had someone from the older generation apologized to me to the way their generation voted and for our futures now I'm not saying that Greg's it shouldn't happen that is the way the country voted but it does seem to be that overwhelmingly young people voted to remain and that wasn't considered well but we've got bill Etheridge here from you Kip you want to apologize to the young people in the room No aha I was a to say to the people in the room that all of these negative spin that's going on here what we actually have is an opportunity for a bright future as a sovereign country trading with the world there was there is absolutely no reason vassal of the European Union and what I would say as well to young people here your wage has been driven down by the fact that the conservatives and labour government allowed him huge amounts of people to compete with you in the jobs market it's called supply and demand well if we clearly hit the big divide eeeh haven't we're not so that was it as a free nation window food you've got a great future it's really really bright and stop being lied to this way let me bring in board newbie from Liberal Democrats well 3/4 of young people voted to remain in the EU because they could see that they were going to be more prosperous and have more life chances if they could travel word study form relationships easily across Europe and that's why we're saying that this potentially disastrous negotiation that Teresa may is just about to embark on and should be put back to the people and at the end of the process so that the person who apologized just then has a chance to effect that apology by voting to remain if she or he feels that the outcome of the deal is worse than the current that's with you all you're offering young people isn't this I mean you're not offering tuition fees back either we're offering maintenance grants back we're offering a whole rest of things in terms of benefits helping young people get on the housing ladder so that we bring in a couple of the hands that went up yeah other back row there so all right like talk about what that you keep man here we're in has when we're a sovereign country on our own in the world flourishing that we will Freud but let's think about what that was like before before 1973 when I forgive well yes when lots of the people over there will have been like my age slightly older we had an economy worse about massive Italy should any self-respecting country have an economy worse than massive Italy the good old days are a lie you're you're you're dragging us back to an imaginary dream when we've only thrived in the earth okay let's come over the side of the annoyed ham looking on the front not annoyed now I will say one thing about the Liberal Democrat approach the only thing they can offer us is to lie down in front of Brussels and led things but what do you say to this Yolo what do you say especially on a man who's just been accusing your generation well we had a Labour government that was incompetent conservative the government was incompetent we were lied to as to what we were joining we were told we were joining a trade organizing gonna come back well the collapsing political whatever we are if they are now in a situation he will never see from me and their little cumbersome after all so we receive the most aid from the American and we grew slower than any other country than Germany and Italy which has been exactly we do not get instead all right shout out to each other remember what is clear from this conversation is that if we're going to build a new britain after brexit we're going to have to unite like never before we're going to have to pull together like never before but what's allowed to show is that these two generations are absolute divided and not it seems eternally about everything this is how you bring people together because opportunity for the old is built security for the old is built on opportunity for the young and that's why we're saying look if we raise taxes just a bit on the very riches we can cancel tuition fees extend the minimum wage young people build a hundred thousand more affordable homes a year that would transform fly shop well I'll pay for the pension to pay for the NHS and pays the power-on Carol doesn't that guy's a win-win for both generation soccer - hey Liam Byrne saying this Liam fun is a politician I thought I respected he was able to tell the public honestly what's happening and only a few months ago what was it printing money nationalizing things spiralling public spending is not the way forward is not the answer that you've raised quite for multiplexing if you act on those four thousand yes that we could increase public spending but thanks for saying I come over here to our favorite afforded the kind of banter does not answer the question the challenges facing the young I'm really embarrassed sitting here amongst those I'm apparently with having people actually tell the young hey we did it we did it in almost yelling at it is not fair what we have done I'm embarrassed as a man who grew up through what now appears to have been a golden period I have three of children my own who are now in their 20s and early 30s and I'm embarrassed at the world that they are working in I'm disappointed because it is because of us my generation that decisions have been made by politicians often squabbling like you two there that have meant we have forgotten the young and those of us who have been trying to work to get young people to register to vote and use your vote in the election have met thousands of young people who want to be involved but feel about well you hit on something really important the figures that show is just an introduction to this show that young people aren't voting the you know the figures of God from 80 something percent to 40 something percent are you walking a vote and I think with Corbin he's really struck a chord with a lot of young people and especially with breakfast in terms of going into the negotiations I think he will go in with us in mind who will go in with students in mind who will go in with working people in mind and so we get the best deal from that we all from the Greens aren't you what do you want sir so I just want to say that the voting systems of insuit people have known that's why people haven't voted in the past we need to perform a voting system really you think people don't vote no right assistants we call that happened effective people felt like their voice counted so they came out and voted previously glad yeah behind you wealthy you know the first point that was made was young people are being disadvantaged with the politicians are focusing on the older generation that's because the young generation aren't going out and voting so if all the younger generation do go out and vote and it's very easy now I'm like polling stations across the road politicians will have to come and think what will be the best for everyone and not this device let me come over to this side and just talk very briefly about social care Shirley Ann Jones where are you now the big controversy has been the conservative tapping of Social Care how do you feel about this policies do you know what falls to you I don't know what the policy is for life I think keeps them very lacking in detail and for instance I don't know if the hundred thousand applies to just one person it in a couple or to both you know what happens if it put a new Afrikan services at all this policy or I mean is it making any difference to whether your generation will vote conservative and it will not make a difference to my eyes out so you'll still vote Soria million over I will still vote Tory I think Theresa May is tackling something head-on that as a country we need to tackle we need to talk about it we need to funding and briefly Bahamas next year yes in terms of the social care how about a return to collectivism we don't know whether it's my family or your family that are going to need to fund social care let's pull the rib eye should vary so for your social turn let's the caller call the Hong Kong they may need social carrier of your age anyway we're going to be very rigorous and I can certainly answer that in terms of needing to invest in the education system of this country and nobody has yet mentioned that cuts in education from our December I'll not know I'm really sorry we've got to wrap it up because we're out of time thank you all very much indeed you

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 99,918

Keywords: Channel 4 News, election debate, election 2017, election 2017 uk, election uk, latest election news, election news, uk election, uk election news, general election, general election uk 2017, general election 2017, young people election, people voting, young people voting uk, why don't young people vote

Id: xOmGE7fE3zI

Length: 16min 53sec (1013 seconds)

Published: Tue May 30 2017