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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Isabel Brooks

My generation can barely recall the last time Labour was in power. We need to believe things really can get better

Greenpeace protest against the Cambo oilfield, London, 2021.
Greenpeace protest against the Cambo oilfield, London, 2021. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

I often struggle to see the point of politics. I’d even go so far as to say I hate it. When mentioning this to a friend, she reminds me that when we were nine, I would loudly proclaim across the primary school cafeteria that I was “very passionate about Gordon Brown”! Labour is in power for the first time since I was 10 years old, but I hardly feel thrilled. In fact, I don’t feel engaged at all. Whatever fervour Gordon Brown inflamed in my nine-year-old heart has been snuffed out over the last 14 years.

I am not the only one to lose faith. Among my friends there was a lot of apathy towards the election. My “snowflake” generation is often accused in the media of being a “woke brigade” that cares too much about appearances and trends, with little interest in formal politics. We are seen as suffering from a lack of knowledge or gumption, inept in our methods, participating only by reposting infographics.

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