Antony Mason reviews the first in a series about young people in Britain today, exploring their problems and offering some possible solutions
Category: Blog
Intergenerational sharing of housing
Angus Hanton suggests that the older generation needs official encouragement to downsize David Willetts recently praised Homeshare International for a project they operate to encourage older people in large houses to lend rooms in their houses to younger people in exchange for help in looking after the house or them (or the garden). Whilst this… Read more »
Where are the bodies buried? – some concerns about landfill
Angus Hanton sees our casual attitudes towards waste landfill as a mark of casual attitudes towards future generations Owners of landfill sites usually know that they have a landfill site, but their detailed knowledge is typically poor. That seems also to apply to the authorities in the UK.
The Dilnot Commission Report
Antony Mason believes that this report received shamefully little media coverage The report of the Dilnot Commission Fairer care funding: Reforming the funding of adult social care was widely trailed before publication on Monday 4 July. Then it received only moderate press coverage. And then it was buried – like almost every other news story… Read more »
Calculating the cost: the consequences of excessive optimism in projections of economic growth
David Kingman argues that current assessments for spending on the aged as a percentage of GDP are flawed, and unfair to future generations. The cost of future liabilities is often expressed as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), i.e. how much of the country’s economic output they are projected to be worth. However, this… Read more »
We need a new social contract between generations
Guy Shrubsole, Director of the Public Interest Research Centre, believes that the baby boomers need to wise up to their environmental responsibilities towards future generations “Society”, wrote Edmund Burke, is “a contract… between those who are dead, those who are living, and those who are to be born”.
Are defence cuts an intergenerational issue?
David Kingman asks whether Britain will have to cut into its defence budget as the population ages – and would this be fair on future generations?
Voting age – an intergenerational issue
Angus Hanton proposes that the voting age should be reviewed to ensure that the younger generation is properly represented There are some democratic systems in which there is an upper age limit on voting. For example, in the Vatican Cardinals over 80 years old are not allowed to cast a vote in the election of a new Pope.… Read more »
British jobs for British workers?
Sam Desborough looks at the suggestion that the role of immigration in filling job vacancies will have long-term intergenerational implications in the UK One and a half million. This is the number of people in the UK – according to most recent figures from the Department of Work and Pensions – who have never had a… Read more »
BBC Radio Four’s Thought For The Day
Clifford Longley, leading religious commentator, asks what our responsibilities should be to our relatives who have yet to be born. Broadcast on BBC Radio Four’s ‘Thought For The Day’, 4 July 2011. Listen to clip