The morality of generational voting
Moral Maze
BBC
4.5 • 609 Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2017
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
British politics has experienced what's been dubbed a "youth-quake." What seemed like political certainties a few weeks ago have been turned on their head by the high youth turnout. And that's a Good Thing isn't it? Politicians have long bewailed the fact that young people don't exercise their democratic right - even if all it takes is not much more than putting a simple 'X' in a box. Until now electoral arithmetic meant that politicians targeted increasingly smaller groups of voters in key constituencies. Now, with people under the age of 25 more engaged than ever in the political process, it's argued that politicians will have to recalibrate their policies to serve a wider group of citizens. There are also those who argue that political parties have been too ready to bow to the power of the "grey vote", too reluctant to look to the next generation and the future. The philosopher John Gray wrote that "the modern world is founded on the belief that it's possible for human beings to shape a future that's better than anything in the past." Has this election been a triumph for young people who've captured that spirit and finally made their voice heard, or has it enshrined grievance and divisive notions of inter-generational unfairness? Is the political engagement of the young a triumph for democracy, or just another group blatantly voting in their own interest? Will the newly enthused youth vote now engage more with the political system and take responsibility for their vote, or just drift off when the next shiny new thing comes along? Has the "youth-quake" spelled the end of managerial politics and brought back commitment, principle and idealism, or has it brought just dangerous uncertainty? The morality of democracy and generational voting. Producer Phil Pegum.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a programme from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:03.8 | Good evening. It was, in many ways, the no-nothing election. |
| 0:07.4 | Most of the politicians who fought it, the pollsters who predicted it, |
| 0:10.6 | the commentariat who opinionated endlessly about it, turned out to know nothing. |
| 0:15.6 | Elderly cynics told the young turned out in unprecedented numbers to vote for an old lefty, |
| 0:20.3 | most of whose colleagues even thought was hopeless, |
| 0:22.8 | probably think these new voters knew nothing either, |
| 0:26.0 | but they certainly knew how to organise and stage what's been called a youth quake. |
| 0:30.5 | We still don't actually know how many under-25s voted, |
| 0:34.0 | but that's the accepted narrative of the most extraordinary election of modern times. |
| 0:38.3 | It's a good thing, surely. The old have long complained at young people's disengagement |
| 0:42.2 | from a political system which has become steadily more managerial than ideological. An injection |
| 0:47.4 | of youthful idealism is just what's needed. A generation that faces being the first for a century |
| 0:52.1 | to be worse off than their parents is right to feel resentful and demonstrated at the ballot box. |
| 0:58.0 | Or are they just another grasping interest group with invented grievances |
| 1:01.7 | falling for electoral bribes and keen to get others to pay for what they want? |
| 1:06.6 | Is youthful idealism an unqualified good? |
| 1:09.2 | From the French Revolution to the Hitler Youth and Mao's Red Guards, |
| 1:12.7 | it's caused more than its fair share of human misery after all. |
| 1:16.3 | Is it wrong to pit young against old in a competition for resources? |
| 1:20.1 | Should democracy be more than competing selfishness? |
| 1:24.1 | Morality and generational politics, our moral maze tonight. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

