In a volatile and cynical age, the availability of peaceful regime change by the ballot box cannot be taken for granted

The youngest eligible voters in Thursday’s general election were four years old when David Cameron became prime minister. They have known only Conservative prime ministers since then. This electoral cohort has also grown up in the long shadow of the global financial crisis that struck before they started school. Much of the political turbulence that has tracked their lives so far can be seen as ripples emanating from that economic cataclysm.

The surge in public borrowing and deficit spending required to stabilise the financial system became the pretext for budget austerity under Mr Cameron’s coalition government. The consequent corrosion of public services and withdrawal of economic safety nets fed disillusionment and cultivated resentments that would help tip the scales in favour of Brexit in 2016. The young person who votes for the first time today, and whose future opportunities were curtailed by that referendum, was only 10 when it was held.

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