The older we get, the more conservative we become?

People voting in a known liar and not minding him lying again and again and taking the complete piss.

Me too aged 49.

I'm in my late 40s and feel that I've become more left-wing as I've got older. The longer I've spent under a Conservative government, the more left-wing I've become.

@pointythings growing numbers of people feeling free to do what they like despite the effect on society. Possibly in response to the same happening with the economic side of things where making money trumps everything.

You'll need to be more specific than that. What is it that goes, and what is the comparator?

Anything goes.

Please define laissez faire morals.

It seems we have the worst of both worlds now with laissez faire economics and laissez faire morals.

I’m the same (aged 65).

It doesn’t hold true for me. I’ve definitely become more liberal and tolerant with age - I think because life experience has made me more compassionate and understanding of other people. I now understand that virtually nothing is black and white.

@Garlicwest This is a brilliant post and I completely agree. I think there can be elements of people being wilfully blind, of denying and minimising inequalities experienced by more vulnerable groups and communities. It is so easy to live in a bubble and not give too much thought to other peoples realities.

Great post. When people talk about low tax economies as a right wing ideal, I often think about the reality of living in extremely wealthy gated communities with their own security but being too scared to leave the compound. Extreme poverty leads to violent and lawless communities.

Our public services and welfare systems are coming apart at the seams and they need fixing urgently. I would rather pay more taxes in order to do this and to live in a safe, relatively prosperous country without the extremes of rich and poor.

This is what a lot of 'right'-leaning people miss, I think. If you've spent any time in places that don't have functional welfare provision, you'll have witnessed the outfall.

If you're okay for your city streets to be lined with people, often whole families, living on the pavements; the diseases they suffer and spread; aggressive robbers and beggars trying to raise food money; widespread, organised crime with violence; huge shanty towns that trap families in generational poverty & crime; those shanties regularly collapsing with thousands of deaths; public services that don't work; sewage in the street; broken education systems; unsafe working practices endangering everyone's life; universal corruption ... then have at it. Go and live there. At least your taxes will be low (though you'll pay more in bribes and getting robbed).

We're fortunate to be able to live in ignorance, because our systems do work - although some of us can see how they are working less well, thanks to the gradual shift to the 'right' we've been experiencing.

I once phoned the police because I heard a revolver shot. They asked me how I knew it was a gunshot. "I used to live in Rio de Janeiro," I said, "I heard them every night". They sneered at me. It clearly meant nothing to them. One of my neighbours was killed by a bullet that ricocheted off his garden wall from a robbery outside!

I caught dysentery. I was vaccinated up to the eyeballs. I've waded through raw sewage. I used to keep a stash of ready cash for the young muggers who approached me once a week or so, I worked with prostituted children (one girl was only three), I saw skeletally-thin rural parents put their kids on a bus to the city to fend for themselves ("At least they'll find food"). I did love living there - and Brazil is far from the least functional place, it's 'second world'.

It's fairly easy to feel you don't need the public services and welfare systems that taxes pay for. But you do, because they protect your clean, safe lifestyle.

I'm remember my mother memorably saying that to me when I was in my early 30s.
I've voted left all my adult life and am a public sector worker. I agree with a lot of what the Tories say, but so far never enough to vote for them. Honestly, I don't see myself ever voting Tory.

I'm mid 40's and more left wing than ever. My parents on the other hand, although they'll never admit it to me because they know my political standpoint, I believe are much more conservative.

I suspect it's more to do with money than age - the more money you have, the more likely you are to be conservative as they look after those with money more than those who don't.

From that article

The rightward shift, however, is too recent for conclusions to be confidently drawn. For now, we’re in the realm of hypotheses.

Not exactly left/right but.....::

I went to a strict all girls catholic schools run by nuns in the 1990s. In order to rebel, lots of us became goths and loved Marilyn Manson. The nuns were horrified and told us of for admiring a satanic singer. We thought they were awfully prudish and conservative.

Anyway......it turns out, the nuns were right about him. I often think about that when thinking about how we change when we get older.

Younger generations are more right-wing than people in their 30ies and 40ies nowadays. www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-youth-vote-is-turning-right/

@50shadesofnay I think we have very similar views- agree with you totally -

@Foxblue ah that would be my now deceased relative - very much of the 'we worked hard' mould- when she never worked more than 10 hours out the house a week for 40 years- and for lots of it nil!

I'm not saying they maybe didn't have more housework etc- but it's not said in that kind of way - what she actually means is my H worked hard, I did a bit of part time 'at times' and popped round my sister's a lot.

I agree totally about fetishing pensioners.

'That's different" and then if you say 'how, I'm genuinely interested' they revert to soundbites about handouts and the like. Never actually want to have a proper in depth discussion about it and hear other opinions or facts and challenge themselves or their worldview, no matter how pleasant or amicable the conversation is, they just wanted to start conversations about controversial things and you agree with them. It's sad, but it is what it is. I am absolutely open to my views being challenged, and want to listen (to make sure im not just sitting in an acho chamber) but they just don't want to and don't see why they should.

Agree with the fetishising of pensioners - lots of people worked hard and had tough lives, sure, but there's also lots of people who bloody didn't.

I think it’s unlikely that you’ve moved to the centre. It’s much more likely that the centre has moved right.

I think people move more to the centre as they get older. I used to be pretty far-right on most things, I guess I've moved more towards the middle as I have got older. Young people tend to be idealists on the left and move to the centre as they learn about how the world really works. Moving left to centre means moving towards the right - but not necessarily actually getting there.

Many many years ago it used to be said that if you weren't socialist when you were under 21 you were soft in the heart, if you were socialist after 21 you were soft in the head!
Not agreeing necessarily, just retelling!
My late mother was a lifelong Labour voter, we used to say she'd vote for a goat wearing a red ribbon but after listening to her putting the world to rights I told her that she would get on well with Mrs Thatcher and I just managed to live to tell the tale.

I’m the opposite, I’ve always been left wing but have become increasingly so the older I get. I feel like when I was twenty I was idealistically left wing, now I see socialism as the only realistic approach to societal issues.