She describes meeting two elderly women recently at a bus station. On the bus, Allie presents a cultural quandary well worth sharing. The deregulation and privatisation of buses has turned a public right, like transportation or water, into a malfunctioning mishmash of greedy operators and poor service that has largely been left unchallenged. The bus fares here are more expensive than London, ВЈ2.20, and it surprises me that local people tolerate such extortionate fares. Allie walks me through a pretty wood near Dore in south-west Sheffield, and we eventually make it to a bus-stop and catch a ride into town. I find it a little hypocritical, but I am not here to judge. But among the people I meet, those who tell me or indicate that they vote conservatively, I have not once heard the realisation that their voting choices have led to governments who have willingly dismantled the social infrastructures for the young which gave these now older people the quality of life they enjoy.

It is easy to underestimate how Conservative-minded the majority of people are, as being a Conservative voter is, like being in favour of the monarchy, a somewhat embarrassing fact. I have not heard talk of a generational responsibility to provide support for the young, even where in practice middle-aged and older parents are financially supporting or providing a bedroom for their adult children. I have heard about the problems of low pay among older people, but IвЂ™m surprised that I havenвЂ™t encountered an attitude of stewardship so far. They are also a little complacent, in my view. They are able to regularly holiday to warmer climes, and they enjoy a standard of domestic life that would have been beyond anything their grandparents could have imagined. They can afford to work part-time or are retired. They own their own property, even if it once belonged to the council. Today these people enjoy what would seem a culturally middle-class life. ThereвЂ™s a more common experience there of growing up in a labour market where work was easy to come by, and apprenticeships, skills training or university studies were available if you worked hard, regardless of the income of oneвЂ™s family. This isnвЂ™t an experience shared by middle-aged and older people I meet, on the whole. ItвЂ™s about unemployment and low pay, about a lack of affordable housing and a feeling that the future is frightening, uncertain, and out of oneвЂ™s control.

In my journeys across the towns of the Midlands and the north IвЂ™ve encountered a recurring problem among young people. вЂThereвЂ™s nowt round вЂere вЂcept call centresвЂ™ вЂ“ Rory, Barnsley.

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