Will Tanner, Director of Onward, wrote for the FT discussing Onward’s new report, “The Kids Aren’t Alright”, and warning that Britain’s Conservatives will not be immune from discontented young people moving to the authoritarian right. He writes:
“You do not have to look hard to guess why young people may be flirting with authoritarianism. The shadow of the financial crisis, student debt, wage stagnation and a never-ending housing crisis all conspire against a feeling of having a stake in society. For as long as liberal democracy fails to address the economic chasm between generations, it is losing.
“But social factors are also at play. In the UK, the share of young people with just one or no close friends has doubled since before Covid. The civic association that Alexis de Tocqueville thought the essence of democratic society is increasingly the preserve of older generations. Creeping isolation pushes young people away from the mainstream: there is a direct correlation between the number of friends a young person has and support for authoritarian government.”
You can read the full article here.
