> When it comes to growth, Britain’s politicians will the ends but not the means. They run scared of the homeowning elderly, who turn up to vote and make up a g

> When it comes to growth, Britain’s politicians will the ends but not the means. They run scared of the homeowning elderly, who turn up to vote and make up a growing share of the electorate. So tax rises are heaped on businesses and workers instead, further harming the economy. The government has likewise watered down its plans for reforming the planning system—because elderly homeowners object. This is the crux of the matter. The UK has entered the same trajectory Italy entered a few decades ago. The old have become the most important constituency, if not the only that really matters and their economic objectives are at odds with growth and with the welfare of younger generations. From cutting taxes on work and increasing taxes on property, to building new houses and making the life of private renters less miserable. While the cost of childcare and education goes to the roof, pension increases are financed with tax hikes that only affects workers younger than 65. Even the push against remote work, I think, should be analysed in this light: the home owning elderly don't want the price of their property to go down due to reduced demand. Johnson and Cameron are equally incompetent and equally damaged the country and its character in ways that I’m not sure are reversible. Cameron was just, let’s say, more composed. The Conservative party is in a power for power’s sake game that doesn't have precedents in this country, at least since the 80s. Here I’m not saying that Thatcher and Blair didn’t have personal ambitions, but they certainly had a vision for the country and they left it in a better shape than when they found it. The current strain of the Conservative party handled the financial crisis so badly, that one may argue that the UK never came out of it. The country became poorer and, so, uglier and nastier, xenophobia has been totally normalised, especially against eastern and central Europeans. Those, that like me, moved to the UK in the mid-2000s, were promised Love Actually and ended up in the Jeremy Kyle Show. Johnson now is in the process of buying consensus with fiscal transfers and gifts of all sorts, not much differently from what the worst Italian governments of the past 30 years have been doing. 30 years later, we know where this journey ends. My economic situation is rather comfortable: I own my flat and I should be able to pay off my mortgage with next year’s bonus in my mid-30s. But I’m wondering if I want my child to grow here, to live in a country where, from the 11+ exam, people are in a never ending rat race just to get what the average EU resident takes for granted. Do I want him to be a renter at constant risk of eviction and, so, homelessness? Do I want him to spend 10K a year in tuition fees? Do I want him to participate in the most classist school system in Western Europe? We are lucky enough to be dual nationals.