Baroness Smith: Solving Intergenerational Fairness needs strategic thinking not a political quick fix
4 min read
Pitting young against old is not the way to deliver better policies; it is the way to foster enmity between generations, says Baroness Smith.
Free education. Home ownership. Triple-locked pensions. Not to mention that well-known pastime - skiing (aka ‘spending kids’ inheritance'). It is all too easy to get into an unedifying spiral of blaming the so-called baby-boomers for their relatively high standard of living and life chances that seem to be out of reach for so many millennials.
The reality is more complex, the issues more intractable and, crucially, solutions to questions of intergenerational inequality need to be long-term. The short-termism that characterises democratic states where politicians rarely look beyond the next election ensures that few decision-makers in the UK ever stop to reflect on the medium-or long-term implications of their policies. Such implications go beyond the generations of our children and grand-children to generations as yet unborn. Not for the UK the chance of creating long-term plans like Saudi 2030 or the luxury of long-term planning which China takes for granted.
Resource depletion and the devastating consequences of climate change may not happen in our lifetimes but they will in part be determined by our action or inaction.
Policy choices in 2017 will affect future generations yet they are nearly always taken with an eye to current generations, particularly those who vote. Periodic, free and fair elections are the hallmark of our democracy providing the opportunity to hold governments to account. Yet they may not elicit the fairest outcomes. Here the House of Lords has an advantage over our elected colleagues on the green benches. We are able to look to the longer term and address questions which are of immediate relevance and long-term import.
It is essential to be responsive to issues of unfairness and inequality but equally vital to be responsible. Pitting young against old is not the way to deliver better policies; it is the way to foster enmity between generations. This is not the way to create a tolerant and inclusive society and will not benefit any generation. Rather the time has come to take a fresh look at policy-making across all government departments. Only with creative and strategic thinking can housing inequality be resolved.
And it is important to think consider whole lifecycles - when planning for the future are we thinking about the four and five year olds who will start school in September 2018 or those who might start in 2028 or 2038? If we aren’t future-proofing capital investments we ,merely alleviate problems rather than resolve them. This is even truer in terms of health and social care: who will look after an increasing number of pensioners? If the current demographic trends persist the answer may be carers coming from overseas as they do today – does the Home Office have a plan for this scenario? Has it even begun to ask the question?
The aim of the motion the Liberal Democrats are bringing to the Lords is not to provide the answers to issues of intergenerational fairness. It is to highlight the many inter-related issues that need to be addressed now if future generations are to enjoy the sort of life chances we, whether baby-boomers, Generation X or millennials, currently enjoy.
Solutions that work for ALL generations are essential. They may not be obvious and are unlikely to be found in party manifestos. Yet solutions need to be found if our country is to be one ‘that works for everyone’ as Theresa May advocated before becoming distracted by Brexit. We cannot afford to be so distracted; it is time to look to take a holistic and fair approach to policy-making.
Baroness Smith of Newnham is a Liberal Democrat peer in the House of Lords
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