Bernard Ingham: Envy and handouts will not help our young people

Have university students become too envious of older people?

Although living modestly but comfortably in my little bungalow, I am for the first time in my life labelled “privileged”.

Forget the knighthood – that does not keep body and soul together – but because I own my own home and have a bit in the bank I am a source of envy.

Some people are so envious that they are suggesting that I – and millions more like me – should hand over £20,000 each to youngsters in their 25th birthday to even things up a bit by contributing more in taxes.

This nonsense is the product of the curious mind of Lord David Willetts, a young politician in my time, who was rising so fast that he was labelled “Two Brains Willetts”. He first cast doubt on whether he had a brain at all by trebling the cost of a university education to £9,000 a year. Now we know he is sadly short upstairs.

The younger generation is worse-off partly because of Willetts’ own doing by promoting university education regardless of its quality and then forcing students to fork out more for it.

On this evidence, the real divide in our country is between the public and eggheads like Willetts and, especially mad professors with curious notions about free speech. Executives who award themselves lavishly regardless of performance have also much to answer for, notably for enabling Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, to cry foul.

With two grandchildren, I recognise that youngsters today have real difficulty in getting on the home ownership ladder because of the inflated cost of housing.

As a somewhat decrepit individual, I also recognise that I am one of those burdens on the state that is going to get worse – both me and the burden – because of longevity.

I have already made it clear in previous columns that I do not believe the NHS can carry on as it is with an inevitable shortage of cash, a rising elderly population, the multiplication of available and expensive treatments and the unsatisfactory state of care for the elderly.

In short, I do not ignore, still less under-estimate, our society’s problems.

But politicians such as Willetts cannot simply pass the buck for healing alleged divisions in society on to generations who, partly because of their own efforts, have increasingly enjoyed a better life.

Who caused the problems that afflict us? Why, politicians – notably Tony Blair and Gordon Brown – are entirely responsible for the £40bn budget deficit that still hangs round our necks and limits the availability of cash for the NHS and other priority areas.

They opened wide our doors to immigrants with inevitable pressure on the housing market and schools.

So far they have done precious little to build Britain back into a property-owning democracy.

And they have allowed the NHS – a nationalised industry – to fall into the hands of incompetent managers devoid of any sense of public service.

If we are a divided nation then the political class has much to answer for. Worse still, Jeremy Corbyn and his gang do their best to divide us further with their Marxist view of a downtrodden society that bears little relation to the reality of even 1958.

Unfortunately, Theresa May has provided cover for those who see the nation divided into the haves and have nots by speaking of a “growing divide” between a more prosperous older generation and a struggling younger one.

It simply is not good enough for the political class to identify a problem. They are there to provide a solution.

They might usefully start, not with higher taxes, but by defining the younger generation’s advantages. After all, they embark on life at an entirely new level of prosperity thanks – Corbyn please note – to the capitalist system and its ready adoption of technology. These factors have transformed the life of the nation in little more than a generation.

Properly controlled – and politicians should never forget the Queen asked why we were not warned of the crash 10 years ago – such a system will continue to bestow benefits on all and sundry.

So, instead of looking for ever at penalising two generations who have seized their opportunities and managed their affairs well, why not begin by promoting the work ethic? After all, employment is at a record level. I fear that the besetting sin of the age is to promote entitlement rather than hard graft.