Kemi Badenoch is worried about me. More generally, she’s worried about Gen Z. She thinks we’re consumed by national self-loathing, that we see racism on every street corner, and that we’re filled with a “nihilistic rage”, whispered into our ears by “loony-left voices”, including from within our government. She wants to help me. In fact she wants to treat me like an immigrant to this country, teach me to feel valued again, to feel pride again, to “integrate” me back into the society that I’ve become so alienated from.
She was writing in this morning’s Times (11 February) in response to a series of sweaty headlines from our newspaper of record, which has chosen this week to deploy a “landmark” generational survey of the oldest members of my age cohort. There were several striking, if unoriginal findings: Most of us wouldn’t fight for our country in the event of war. We’re not especially proud of Britain either, which we see as “stuck in the past”. We have no faith in basic state functions: 31 per cent would not trust the police if they were the victim of a crime, as opposed to 8 per cent 20 years ago.
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