Millennials are a growing electoral force, and their thinking on tax is a gamechanger

‘When Tony Blair first introduced tuition fees in 1998, he made it very clear that the system wasn’t intended as a graduate tax. But it doesn’t half feel like one.’ Students in Manchester protest in 1999. Photograph: Don Mcphee/The Guardian

Taxes are the price paid for living in a civilised society.

That founding belief in the moral imperative to stump up for the public good lies deep in progressive bones, just as the belief that people should be able to keep more of their own hard-earned cash does for rightwingers. British liberals are so used to arguing that you can’t have lovely, Scandinavian-style public services on American-style taxes that most of us could probably do it in our sleep.