The High Horse of Age: Concerning Thatcher

Some of us were not alive during Thatcher’s reign. Some of us were only toddlers, like myself. Some of us saw it all. Dear the latter, shut up about your age. Here is why:

I’ve been frustrated with the amount of people who say, “How can young people protest against the funeral? They weren’t around.” Here are two possible answers.

ONE: some ‘young people’ come from families that were severely affected by Thatcher’s campaigns. They may not have seen first hand what it did to their family members, but they have seen and felt the knock on effects. Some children come from families that really fucking hate her, and I know people who have been reminding me of this for many, many years.

TWO: some ‘young people’ have a brain and like to do this thing we call ‘research’, or go into ‘higher education’. I had two painfully boring years of studying Thatcherism when I was seventeen. I can’t pretend I know everything, I can’t say my family was one to suffer during her reign, but I have studied enough to know that I do not like her and, for the sake of older generations who struggled first hand, I will not let her ‘legacy’ wash past me as if I shouldn’t care.

If we start saying “young people have no reason to care,” then guess what. They’re going to stop caring because they are met with a wall of patronising comments and shunted as if incapable of empathy. If you care about current events then involve them, debate with them and help them to shape the system. We ‘young people’ can care about things other than our university fees. Honest.