Election Year or Fear!

[Geoff Parkstone]

Couldn't agree more…and before the shouts of ‘pilot’ and ‘rear gunner’ predictably begin from those who invariably fall over themselves to agree with each other over such issues, here’s a thought.

There was a letter to the Guardian - originally from around fifty odd years ago I think - suggesting that people tend to shift to the Right as they get older. It also noted that the average man over the age of 25 loses around one million irreplaceable cells of grey matter every day, suggesting perhaps that such moves to the Right may - not unlike osteoarthritis - be a further example of a degenerative condition.

Before the three degrees explode with righteous indignation I will add at this point that this comment was largely tongue in cheek. ‘Just joshing’ in AF speak…food for thought though.

But of course Grauniad readers do not lose these cells in such numbers?

It's fair to say people move right with age, I'd agree and see it all over the country. Mainly because as young idealists they by and large dont have much in the way of assets and so would be winners in any redistribution of wealth. The older you get and the more assets you acquire, the more you become a loser in wealth redistribution.

So simple self preservation move people rightward and it takes an unusual type of person to buck this trend.

Doesn't explain why the have nots move that way, but perhaps they don't: or maybe in some cases they already were there.

[MadAmster]

‘A recent study’ found that it’s the idealist / head in the clouds cells that decay, leaving more room for the pragmatic / feet on the ground cells to grow

Oh dear, does that mean I haven't got anywhere near losing the requisite number of brain cells yet? I still want a fairer world where the Musks and the Murdochs of this world can still get obscenely rich but that those unable to eke out a decent living get looked after...

[Andy_Faber]

Oh dear, does that mean I haven't got anywhere near losing the requisite number of brain cells yet? I still want a fairer world where the Musks and the Murdochs of this world can still get obscenely rich but that those unable to eke out a decent living get looked after...

If it means that it means we are at similar levels of ‘change’

[ramAnag]

... yet despite losing all those cells, we seem capable, most of us anyway, of discerning fact from fiction, truth from propaganda and show the capability of utilising joined up thinking. That's probably why none of us ever chose politics...

As you suggest - ‘most of us’ - unfortunately there are an alarming number who fall for the ‘propaganda’ and idolise the propagandists. Thankfully you and I are not amongst them.

[ramAnag]

If it means that it means we are at similar levels of ‘change’

If we could cease animosity for a moment (hopefully longer) I’d really love to understand where GP and AF are coming from. Seriously and genuinely.
Are you really so wealthy GP that you would lose out hugely if things were rebalanced a little…wouldn’t it be better to have slightly higher taxes IF it meant better hospitals, schools, care homes and emergency services…and why is it that MA, Swale and myself, none of whom I’d identify as being remotely ‘poor’, would welcome such change where you are apparently appalled at the prospect?
Andy…what sort of ‘change’ is it that you do actually support?

[Geoff Parkstone]

I think if you read what I wrote, I don't express a personal view, I'm trying to generalise the reasons for the right shift with age.

But it's not a question of "excessive riches". If, for example, someone has saved all their life for a good living in retirement, they can reasonably expect to not have to give it away in taxes etc just when they need it. Hence the shift to "self" from "us" in later life.

[ramAnag]

I think if you read what I wrote, I don't express a personal view, I'm trying to generalise the reasons for the right shift with age.

But it's not a question of "excessive riches". If, for example, someone has saved all their life for a good living in retirement, they can reasonably expect to not have to give it away in taxes etc just when they need it. Hence the shift to "self" from "us" in later life.

I frequently read what you write because, ‘economically’ you are one of the most knowledgeable on here, and you’ve regularly opposed the idea of raising taxes to pay for better services.
I’m not suggesting that you, or I, should have to ‘give it away just when they need it’ and I don’t know of anyone else who is either…just that those who can pay more into the ‘pot’ could…for the greater good of that thing Thatcher suggested no longer existed…society.