Manraj Atwal is a History undergraduate at UCL and the incoming President of its Conservative Society.
I am a Conservative.
I have always been a Conservative, and indeed I could be nothing other than a Conservative by character, temperament and inclination. University, as I was aware from reading the news articles decrying the latest free-speech row, was not a conservative place.
When I looked at the long list of clubs on the student union page, I saw an endless stream of left-wing societies, from the mainstream Labour society to the rather more esoteric “Platypus affiliated society”; dedicated to excavating the ruins of Lenin and Marx for a new generation. And when I went to the open days and freshers’ fairs, I felt my assumptions confirmed as flyers were thrust into my hands protesting this corporation or marching in solidarity with that cause.
Alas, I thought to myself, I’d best get used to this.
And yet, I needn’t have worried. On the surface, things were every bit as I’d expected, Marxist material strewn across lampposts and the occasional tents in solidarity with Gaza. But as I looked closer, I realised that these were the work of vanishingly few students – keeping the embers alive of a flame that’s been steadily going out for years.
In fact, what was striking wasn’t the noise generated by these would-be revolutionaries, but the quiet around them. Compared to the high watermarks of student political activity, such as the LSE occupations in the 60s, or even more recently the tuition fees protests of 2010, campus life today is defined by silence.
None of this is to say students have stopped caring. People, in general, are only too willing to give you their diagnosis for why the country is in the state it is; doubly so for university students, having taken a term of economics and now confident they alone have the solution to global poverty.
What has undeniably changed, however, is the world around them. Long gone are the halcyon days of cheap universities being subsidised experiences for listless students to “find themselves”. With the rising tide of youth unemployment paired with a morass of student debt ready to greet each fresh graduate, universities are increasingly geared to internships, interviews and jobs; in short, uncertainty is the order of the day.
And this uncertainty seeps into everything. This is a generation that cannot say where it will be living in three years, or whether the degree it is going into debt for will buy the life it wants, or whether, when all is said and done, their life will be any better than their parents.
They live in a condition not of despair, but uncertainty.
Where does politics come into this? Ask that same student what they make of the latest
Westminster row, of Mandelson files or Labour leadership contests and you will get a shrug. Not because they do not care about their lives; they care enormously, but because nothing in the political conversation seems to touch the things keeping them up at night. So, politics comes to feel like a performance staged for someone else, in a language about other things. And a rational person, offered nothing, eventually stops listening.
It is in this apathy, however, that the Conservatives have their biggest opportunity.
Fundamentally, these students want what every generation wants. They want the opportunity to make something of themselves. They want to see their aspirations fulfilled, to be able to buy a house, to live comfortably, and to be secure financially. What they want isn’t radical; they don’t want to live on welfare or to become the latest generation of NEETs. These demands are Conservative demands, and even if they don’t recognise it yet, it is the Conservative party that is best placed to help them fulfill their aspirations.
It is, after all, Conservatism that argues for individual responsibility, for citizens to be aspirational and for everyone to live in a true property-owning democracy. It is Conservatism that has historically been the party of the right to buy, cutting taxes and creating an aspirational society. And it is this Conservatism, not mutated into a wholly different entity to appeal to the young, but true Conservatism that will win this generation back.
The Conservative party must stop waiting for this generation to come round on its own. It must go to them with a real offer, give them a stake in society, and something worth conserving; and it needs to make the case with conviction. Do that and turn this apathetic generation into the Conservative generation.
Manraj Atwal is a History undergraduate at UCL and the incoming President of its Conservative Society.
I am a Conservative.
I have always been a Conservative, and indeed I could be nothing other than a Conservative by character, temperament and inclination. University, as I was aware from reading the news articles decrying the latest free-speech row, was not a conservative place.
When I looked at the long list of clubs on the student union page, I saw an endless stream of left-wing societies, from the mainstream Labour society to the rather more esoteric “Platypus affiliated society”; dedicated to excavating the ruins of Lenin and Marx for a new generation. And when I went to the open days and freshers’ fairs, I felt my assumptions confirmed as flyers were thrust into my hands protesting this corporation or marching in solidarity with that cause.
Alas, I thought to myself, I’d best get used to this.
And yet, I needn’t have worried. On the surface, things were every bit as I’d expected, Marxist material strewn across lampposts and the occasional tents in solidarity with Gaza. But as I looked closer, I realised that these were the work of vanishingly few students – keeping the embers alive of a flame that’s been steadily going out for years.
In fact, what was striking wasn’t the noise generated by these would-be revolutionaries, but the quiet around them. Compared to the high watermarks of student political activity, such as the LSE occupations in the 60s, or even more recently the tuition fees protests of 2010, campus life today is defined by silence.
None of this is to say students have stopped caring. People, in general, are only too willing to give you their diagnosis for why the country is in the state it is; doubly so for university students, having taken a term of economics and now confident they alone have the solution to global poverty.
What has undeniably changed, however, is the world around them. Long gone are the halcyon days of cheap universities being subsidised experiences for listless students to “find themselves”. With the rising tide of youth unemployment paired with a morass of student debt ready to greet each fresh graduate, universities are increasingly geared to internships, interviews and jobs; in short, uncertainty is the order of the day.
And this uncertainty seeps into everything. This is a generation that cannot say where it will be living in three years, or whether the degree it is going into debt for will buy the life it wants, or whether, when all is said and done, their life will be any better than their parents.
They live in a condition not of despair, but uncertainty.
Where does politics come into this? Ask that same student what they make of the latest
Westminster row, of Mandelson files or Labour leadership contests and you will get a shrug. Not because they do not care about their lives; they care enormously, but because nothing in the political conversation seems to touch the things keeping them up at night. So, politics comes to feel like a performance staged for someone else, in a language about other things. And a rational person, offered nothing, eventually stops listening.
It is in this apathy, however, that the Conservatives have their biggest opportunity.
Fundamentally, these students want what every generation wants. They want the opportunity to make something of themselves. They want to see their aspirations fulfilled, to be able to buy a house, to live comfortably, and to be secure financially. What they want isn’t radical; they don’t want to live on welfare or to become the latest generation of NEETs. These demands are Conservative demands, and even if they don’t recognise it yet, it is the Conservative party that is best placed to help them fulfill their aspirations.
It is, after all, Conservatism that argues for individual responsibility, for citizens to be aspirational and for everyone to live in a true property-owning democracy. It is Conservatism that has historically been the party of the right to buy, cutting taxes and creating an aspirational society. And it is this Conservatism, not mutated into a wholly different entity to appeal to the young, but true Conservatism that will win this generation back.
The Conservative party must stop waiting for this generation to come round on its own. It must go to them with a real offer, give them a stake in society, and something worth conserving; and it needs to make the case with conviction. Do that and turn this apathetic generation into the Conservative generation.