The Narratives – Mohamed Miah

Mohamed Miah – The Narratives

The Same Faces, The Same Cycle

For decades, British politics has looked the same. The same two-party monopoly. The same tired faces. The same promises recycled into slightly different packaging. And at the heart of it all sits a simple truth: the Conservatives have clung to power for so long because their core voters always show up.

Older, wealthier, property-owning — this demographic forms the backbone of Conservative victories. They vote consistently, they vote to protect what they have, and they vote out of fear that any change might cost them their comfort. Labour, once the party of working-class ambition, has slowly drifted into the same territory. Fearful of alienating middle-class property owners, it offers watered-down versions of the status quo, while pretending to be the alternative.

The result is paralysis. British politics no longer looks ahead. It simply clings to what exists.

The Generational Lock

The uncomfortable truth is that politics today is controlled by people who have already lived most of their lives. Their mortgages are paid. Their pensions secured. Their wealth protected. Every policy they vote for reinforces the systems that benefit them personally, even if that means sabotaging the future for their children and grandchildren.

The statistics make this crystal clear. In the 2019 election, 67% of voters aged 70 and over supported the Conservatives. Among 18–24-year-olds, only 56% supported Labour — and even that support has been slowly eroding as Labour shifts rightward. In homeownership, the divide is even sharper: 77% of over-65s own their homes, while only 35% of 16–34-year-olds do. Among retirees, 92.6% own their properties outright, while younger generations are increasingly trapped in rent cycles with house prices growing exponentially faster than wages.

But it’s not just about property. Voter turnout remains heavily skewed towards older generations. Young people are not apathetic. They are disengaged because they see a system rigged against them—a system where no matter who they vote for, nothing changes.

Those with the most to lose from systemic change hold the most influence to prevent it. This is the generational lock.

Housing The Economic Battlefield

Nowhere is this generational conflict more visible than in housing.

For younger people, homeownership has become a distant dream. But for older generations, property isn’t just shelter — it’s wealth. It’s retirement security. It’s a second or third home. Every effort to reform planning laws or increase housing supply is met with fierce resistance from those who fear it might deflate their property values.

In 2023, only 193,000 homes were built — far short of the 300,000 needed annually. Planning delays continue to strangle supply, with 93% of small developers reporting significant obstacles. Some rural councils have planning applications still pending from before 2020.

The scarcity benefits landlords, investors, and developers who thrive on inflated markets. Meanwhile, an entire generation is locked out of basic stability.

Political Representation Age Gap in Power

The problem isn’t just who votes. It’s who governs.

The average age of councillors in England is 60. Only 16% of councillors are under 45, while 42% are 65 or older. Even in Parliament, youth representation is dangerously thin. And while British society grows more diverse, 92% of councillors remain white.

Politics has become a career club for the old and comfortable. Power circulates within the same groups, while younger voices — the ones who will actually live with the consequences of today’s decisions — remain locked out.

Privatisation as Legalised Theft

Beyond party politics, the deeper rot lies in how Britain’s economy has been quietly transformed into an extraction machine — one that profits from basic human vulnerability.

The government hasn’t just outsourced public services; it has sold them into a web of corporate contracts where politicians, civil servants, and private investors all have financial stakes. Companies like Capita, G4S, Sopra Steria and Serco now run vast chunks of healthcare, policing, defence, immigration, and IT infrastructure.

But this isn’t a simple outsourcing arrangement. In many cases, these same government officials or their circles hold financial interests — through pension funds, private equity, or consultancy roles. The government awards contracts to companies that benefit their own portfolios, while taxpayers foot the bill.

It’s not efficiency. It’s not cost-saving. It’s legalised theft disguised as public policy.

Profiting From Vulnerability

Nowhere is this more obscene than in the care sector.

As of 2024, 96% of adult residential care in England is privatised. Over 80% of children’s homes are run by for-profit companies. And it shows. Care workers are subjected to zero-hour contracts, low pay, and exhausting shifts. Staff turnover is high. Morale is low. Care quality suffers.

Many care homes recruit staff from overseas, but here too, exploitation runs deep. Migrant workers often pay between £10,000 to £20,000 for visas, sponsorships and agency fees — debts they spend years repaying. All while being trapped in emotionally exhausting jobs, thousands of miles away from home, with little support or protection.

This is not care. It’s financial exploitation of the most vulnerable people — both patients and workers alike.

The Hidden War Inside Our Borders

Forget wars abroad. The real war is being fought at home.

We have created an entire economic model that profits from human suffering. Every time a hospital discharges a sick patient early, a private care provider gains a new client. Every struggling homeless person becomes a statistic for a subcontracted charity to justify more government funding. Every worker on a zero-hour contract becomes another cheap unit of flexible labour.

We are no longer just profiting from war, oil, or weapons. We have monetised old age, poverty, loneliness, homelessness, disability, illness, and trauma. The worse people suffer, the more revenue flows through private hands. The tragedy is that it’s not foreign corporations doing this. It’s us. Our governments. Our companies. Our own people.

This is late-stage capitalism in full view, when everything that can be sold has already been sold, and all that’s left to monetise is the suffering of human beings themselves.

Market of Misery Suffering Into Profit

This isn’t accidental. This is the natural end stage of a system addicted to perpetual growth.

Once land, housing, resources, and infrastructure are bought and sold, capitalism turns inward — looking for new markets. And so it finds them in care homes, hospitals, orphanages, prisons, recruitment agencies, and even charities. Every vulnerable human being becomes a line item on someone’s balance sheet.

We have reached a point where the most tragic life events — illness, job loss, homelessness, aging — are no longer just social challenges to solve. They are revenue streams to maximise.

And every year the machine demands more growth. More patients. More care home residents. More prison inmates. More homeless. More desperate workers. Because if the numbers don’t grow, the shareholders aren’t happy.

It’s not just unsustainable. It’s morally bankrupt.

The Green Party Matters More Than Ever

The Green Party stands at a rare and fragile crossroads. Long dismissed as fringe, eccentric or idealistic, they are now one of the few parties offering serious, generational solutions. But to break through, they must professionalise.

They need to move beyond the “eco-warrior” stereotype that has haunted them for years. They must recruit sharp, articulate, media-savvy leaders who can hold their ground on national stages. They need younger faces, diverse voices, and serious policy professionals who speak to ordinary people, not just activists.

Unlike Labour and the Tories, the Greens are not beholden to corporate donors, landlords, or property developers. Their platform speaks directly to the future — to those who will inherit the wreckage.

The Real Revolution Is Generational

At its core, this crisis is not just about politics. It is about who owns the future.

For decades, older generations have preserved their comfort at the expense of younger people who now inherit rising debt, broken housing markets, and collapsing public services. The radical solutions we need will sound extreme — because we have normalised this sickness for so long.

It’s time to put everything on the table, lowering the voting age to 16. Ending political careers after three elections. Breaking up private monopolies in healthcare and care provision. Re-nationalising essential services. Legislating against government conflicts of interest. And most importantly, designing an economy where profit is permitted — but perpetual growth is not.

Because endless growth on a finite planet only has one destination, collapse.

The next election may not be Left vs Right.

It may finally be Old vs Young.

And 30 Green seats could be the beginning of everything.

This isn’t just about reform. This is about survival.