What will life be like under Reform?

[Easipeelerie]

I have accepted the likelihood of the next government being Reform. I don’t think the government after that will necessarily be Reform. But in the 4 Reform years, what do people think life will be like for the different groups in our country? Will we see very immediate changes?

Having a bunch of racist fascist loons in charge? Look across the pond at Trump.

Exactly. Being a credulous racist is not age dependent

There is no state pension pot. What there is, is a huge state pension liability. I haven’t paid into anything, I have been taxed and this money has helped pay the current state pensioners.

The whole situation is unsustainable. Unfortunately the boomer generation control Parliament and there isn’t much I can do about that.

But I do think Reform will take the economy from slow death spiral into catastrophic failure. Then the IMF come in, then the State Pension, Civil Service Pension, welfare benefits, all will get cut/hit. The die is already cast. All I can do is circle the wagons around my own personal finances. Good luck to you all.

Unfortunately the boomer generation control Parliament

Not sure where this idea comes from. As some posters have said, they did not vote for the governments that; sold everything, no free university, no North Sea oil, Brexit…..

Oh come on please! It’s pretty widely accepted all parties have favoured older voters as they 1. Do vote, and 2. Vote in large numbers.

I imagine it will be Trussonomics under a new name. Some people , well ok Liz Truss and Patrick Minford and Nigel Farage , think her budget was absolutely brilliant but she wasn't given enough time to prove it. Because the Deep State, the gays , the rootless metropolitans of North London* , and the EU sabotaged her.

But now the British people will have 5 years or 8 years or possibly forever to see if it works. Jolly D....

We weren’t always the older voters. I was 26 when Thatcher first came to power and I never voted for her, neither did my friends. You also seem unable to comprehend that not everyone votes with self interest in mind - that’s a particularly Thatcherist trait.

Obviously I am generalising. Not all boomers are selfish and greedy. But collectively they are. Just look at the winter fuel allowance overreaction that forced a Labour U - Turn.

I’m afraid as a cohort boomers have absolutely shafted future generations with a whole bunch of short sighted decisions and policies.

@PinkFruitbat

Oh come on please! It’s pretty widely accepted all parties have favoured older voters as they 1. Do vote, and 2. Vote in large numbers

I was age 18 when I first voted in 1983.

But collectively they are. Just look at the winter fuel allowance overreaction that forced a Labour U - Turn.

Elderly retired a spend more time in their homes as they are not working. Hence they use more energy.

Before Labour won in July 2024, they estimated that if the conservatives reduced or scrapped the winter fuel allowance it would cost an estimated 4000 lives. So, not a good move to scrap it as soon as they won.

I’m afraid as a cohort boomers have absolutely shafted future generations with a whole bunch of short sighted decisions and policies

The short sighted decisions and policies were made by the governments in power at the time, not by the electorate.

What age bracket would you consider to be a boomer? Which government were in power during the so called boomer generation era?

Baby boomers - I would say born ‘45-‘65 so aged between 60 and 80.

@PinkFruitbat

So, what is that persons between 60 and 80 have been gifted that today’s young generation Z (1997-2012) 28 to 32 year olds have not? Before you answer, l will advise what I did when I was younger:

Age 14-16

Milkround from 05:30 to 08:00 for £4 per week. Father, ambulance driver, and mother nurse couldn’t give pocket money.

Age 16-18

Worked 6 days per week over the 6 weeks summer holiday for £2 per hour. Whatever I took home each week, one third was given to my mother to help towards house costs. The rest was saved to avoid debt when I went to university.

Age 18-21 University

Worked over the 16 weeks summer break for £100 per week. Again, one third of take home was given to my mother to help towards house costs.

Age 22 House Purchase 1987

First salary was £8K. That, plus deposit of £3K saved from summer work, enabled me to buy a 2 bedroom terrace for £24K

If after paying mortgage, rates, utilities and food costs, I could buy a beer on Friday night I was doing well. A car and holiday didn’t happen until I was over 30.

So, as a boomer, I can’t work out was I was gifted. Unlike son and daughter who both had cars at age 17 and several smart phones.

Daughter aged 32 will be married next year. The cost of her wedding reception is more than what I paid for my first house! Madness.

So, I would say that boomers have not taken anything away from today’s young, but the expectations of today’s young are unrealistic.

‘Age 22 House Purchase’

QED

How QED?

The deposit was saved for by myself and I took out a maximum mortgage at 9%. When the rate climbed to 15%, things got very tight. Had it not been a for a Saturday job I found, the house may have been repossessed.

I know some people disagree with this but what if they get in ? Is it really that bad? Is it really that much of a disaster? I mean maybe a radical change is what we need.

And if Reform are a real disaster they will get voted out again.

Labour would never have given toss about the boats or uncontrolled immigration if the opinion polls didn’t show how popular Reform are.

The only thing is they have simple answers but it won’t be as easy to implement them , no matter what Farage says.

I’m more concerned about the Greens getting into a coalition, than Refome. Seriously concerned.

America Lite.

The media are RARING for this and are handing the UK to Reform on a platter by assuming this is what will happen and giving Nigel the Cunt so much airtime.

I think Liebour have managed to create enough Labour voting dead wood now, to stay in charge almost in perpetuity.

I think both things are true - young people today have very high ‘Insta’ expectations, but also wages have absolutely flatlined for decades and housing is eye wateringly expensive.

I definitely think the notion of saving for a few years seems too hard for a lot of under 40s. My friends on average wages all get lashes and nails done at £50 a pop, eat out once or twice a month at least, go on a few weekends away a year, always have immaculate Insta decor and buy new clothes every month, yet complain they’re skint. They truly believe the aforementioned things are a ‘basic quality of life’ and talk about them being essential for MH.

I’m afraid you show breathtaking lack of awareness how out of touch your buying a house aged 22 relates to the realities of today. I have nothing more to say to you.

Of course you have been gifted, as have i, your 1st house at 24, 3x your salary, a starter home is around 200k to 280k 6x or 7x the average salary, in fact down here, thats more like 8 to 12x avg salary.

You ve no student debt, you were in an employment era where degrees weren't required for most jobs.
Apprenticeships were common and easily obtainable with a handful of CSE's

Todays young spend more on "stuff" because it doesn't matter if they saved every penny, they'll never be able to afford a house plus there is more things we all need now to be able to function.

My DD pays back a fortune in student loan and without my help would never be able to afford a home and she is a relative hi earner.

However, i agree we haven't as such "taken" from todays generation but as your post proves, many "boomers" simple don't accept how lucky they have been to be born when they were.

More fool her for wasting 24k on a wedding reception.

Houses- many people don’t realise how lucky the were to have brought when they did.

People could still get a decent 3 bed semi in the Home Counties for £70k in the late 90s. Even less than that.

Try north of £350k now.

It isn’t young people’s fault that houses are too expensive. It the system itself surely ?

Sadly there’s no way of doing anything unless they did a house price freeze but how would they even do that anyway?

It's absolutely true. I'm almost 58. My late husband and I bought our house in 1998, just before things went completely insane in the housing market.

But honestly, anyone thinking Reform is going to do anything about affordable housing is dreaming.

We bought in 1975, 2001 and again in 2014 before the madness set in. We had foresight !

You were lucky just as we were. We didn’t do anything clever, we were just at the right life stages at the right time.

I have a young guy working for me. Mid 20s. He’s on the second rung of the property ladder. How?

He lives in the home counties and commutes. He didn’t go to uni and didn’t rack up debt. Instead he did an apprenticeship and saved.

It’s seems to me his life is closer to a boomer’s: straight into work at 16, then a very humble property to start bought jointly with his girlfriend. A lot of youngsters today are starting work 8 years later than their grandparents did and commit to partners later too. This is part of the issue.

I do appreciate that houses have become financial-ised in the anglosphere and this is a big part of the problem. But it’s not the inly thing.