now it is time for newsnight, with evan davis. will the generations go to war fora pension, a house, ajob? for wealth? is young versus old the prize fight of the century? your generation — is it the one that has never had it so good? or the one that has worked its socks off to get britain to where it is today? tonight, have the older generation taken more than their share, and should the young feel aggrieved? with our guests in the studio, we'll work out how far your age affects your life chances. also tonight. it is nice living in stoke, it's just poor, really. ten days to the stoke central by—election — we don't hear from the candidates — we talk to the voters. it was tradition, they used to say if you put a monkey up for labour

people would vote for it. they have lost the common touch. and this... president obama said america would accept 1200 refugees. no, prepare to go to war. is satire now the effective opposition to president trump? we'll ask erstwhile american ruby wax. hello. have the baby boomers robbed the millennials of their future? probably not, but research out this morning did suggest something extraordinary is happening in terms of intergenerational incomes.

the resolution foundation says that typical pensioner incomes — after housing costs — are now higher than those of people of working age. i can't overstate how unusual that is — in the old days we tended to think the aged were poor. but a lot has happened in the last few decades. for one, the old have carried on working. a fifth of pensioner households have a wage earner in them. and of course they are enjoying the fruits of the heyday of the old final salary pension schemes — add the way the housing market has worked in their favour... and politicians dumping the burden of austerity on the young... and for all the difficult decisions we've made over the past five years, we have said all along that dignity for older people was non—negotiable. and over the next five years, that should be the case again. and you can see why those starting out feel the cards are stacked against them. so does it make sense to look at our economy through intergenerational eyes, given that society can be divided

in all sorts of ways? a lot of pensioners aren't well off, and don't understand why we are even discussing this. the income figures for the elderly are flattered by more recent, affluent pensioners. and anyway, there are plenty of well off youngsters. many of them by the way, given a helping hand by their parents. so maybe the issue is inequalities within the generations that matter. or is it a north south divide, driving house prices? lots to think about, so let's start with some intergenerational facts from our policy editor chris cook. the road to a steady family life is longer than it used to be. even for people who start off well, say by getting a degree. in 2016 the average person starting to repay a student loan in england owed £24,600 to the government. even in fee—free scotland it was £10,500. now a large minority of young people have to service such debts. but wages for young workers

overall dropped by around 7% from 2007 to 2014. wages have done a bit better for slightly older workers but the 60 pluses have done best of all, seeing real and sustained income growth. then of course there's housing. the median first—time buyer now is 30 years old. in 1974 it was just 26. in 2017 first—time buyers borrowed 3.5 times their annual earnings. in 1974 it was just 2.2 times. and rents are hardly cheap either. and it's all money, of course that largely goes to existing homeowners, which is to say, older people. some of this money heading up to older people will of course eventually come back as inheritance. of those born in the 19705, 75% have received or expect to receive a significant inheritance. that's a lot. the equivalent number

is just 40% for those who were born in the 1930s. but that effect means the wealth of younger generations will depend more on who their parents are then was the case for older generations. a study has also found that a 10% increase on house prices feeds through to a 2—4% drop in the likelihood of having a baby, for renters a few years later. and that effect persists so it's likely to mean young people who cannot get on the housing ladder end up with smaller families. older people are also much more likely than younger people to be members of so—called defined benefits pension schemes. these are pensions where in effect, your employer guarantees a certain level of income in retirement. and young people are hit by that in two important ways. first of all, theyjust don't have that level of security. their pensions ride on the stock market. and secondly, they manage to find their own wages, while they are employed, suppressed by their employers who have to bail out their old employees' pension funds. there are big inequalities

within age bands. poor young people and pensioners mustn't be forgotten. but there are big problems for young people's ability to navigate the path into adulthood, and through it. we're nowjoined by laura gardiner from the resolution foundation whose report prompted today's talk on this, dame esther rantzen the founder of the silver line — a helpline for older people, shiv malik, author of the book jilted generation — referring to his generation asjilted, and sean o'grady from the independent. do the young complain too much? they do. like the title of the book jilted generation there is nothing jilted about this generation, no sense in which we in my generation have eaten their lunch, we made their lunch for them. there was an idea abroad that everything was easy in

the old days, it was a kind of nirvana of economics but it was not. the 19705 and 19805 were an orgy of high inflation, mega high interest rates, negative equity when we had housing cra5he5. rising unemployment, public services continually under 5train. the economy went bust in 1976. these were terrible years and we lived through them, we built the country we have now today. by seeing that through, by reducing union power, reforming the economy and making all the changes that made all the wonderful things, wonderful new building here at the bbc, all these things po55ible. the only good thing about the 19705 was television was better. that is the truth of the matter. you get this idea everything was wonderful in my day and terrible today and that is not right.

would you rather have been born 15 years earlier than you were born, do you think in material term5... yes, that is the existential problem facing the country. also america and many other developing nations. that could explain why politics seems to be in turmoil as well. when the boomer generation cannot replicate what every other generation has done, make the next generation which, this is truly the legacy. —— the next generation richer. and you think i wish i was born earlier, i would have been any more and had a better standard of living, more able to have a house and family, be able to own my own home. would he have been worse off born 20 years before or about the same or a little better off but it feels worse off because he's not as much better

than he wants to be? in terms of income, the best measure of current living standards, after housing costs we look to bat and every generation since 1881, and we only begin then because it is the first week of measure, has done better than the last at each stage of their lives. —— we have looked at. so a 20—year—old now should be better off? that is what we have come to expect in the 20th century and before but so far, and not all of them have got the way through yet but the millennials, born between 1981 and 2000 have failed to achieve those living standard improvements of the generation before. so this looks like a threat to the very core that has underpinned the social contract that generations improve on the previous one. so it is not that expectations have been richer than his parents, but he's a little bit behind where they wear? —— where they were.

slightly above, 5lightly below but compared to the generation just before, largely the same, tho5e large improvements and disappear. because the recession and pay squeezes but other trends as well. and with that start in life we should be worried about future of the millennial. is your heartbreaking for the younger people? there is some self—pity going on which is interesting. i'm awfully sorry your youth was so miserable and you feel you have lost out to be rich fat cats of the older generation. i was actually talking to a family, the mother, all her 5aving5 had gone to pay for her care and that of her husband, so her husband was left unburied for seven weeks because she could not afford his funeral. so you're right that some people are better off than others. there is still a great deal of poverty in old age but i am 76 years

old, as i believe you are announcing to your viewers! that is ok i'm not ashamed. let me just say that wealth and happiness are not the same thing. i worry about the millennial generation and younger, i worry about all kinds of dangers facing them. i worry about my own future because i do not want to be a burden on my children. so i have to have enough in my savings to pay for my own care, that is my big worry. but in the meantime stop being so envious of previous generations and little old people like us. get on with it, enjoy your life. you have health and 5trength, you look fit. i always hate this condescension which i always receive from esther. every time we have this conversation. it is simple, people in my generation need simple things, housing, the ability

to have an raise a family. and they need to be able to get on in life and know their future will be better. if that doesn't happen for our generation it will mean the entire country eventually will go bust. better in which way? a bigger television? this is really serious. it is an existential threat to the country. it is very simple. it is the ability to own a home or be able to read in a place where you can raise a family. anyone under 35 knows what i'm talking about. it is definitely harder for this generation? there's no sense of perspective in this. i don't want to sound like an ultra old guy. if you record start in 1881, that is yesterday

basically in human existence. for most of human life your parents or grandparents, they had the same standard of living. this is a relatively recent thing. there is no god—given right to have a higher or same standard of living for the fifth generation as for the previous one. —— for this generation. the second thing, it is all about money with you young folk. it is ok for the people to say that having taken all the money! let's look health, today and i am a beneficiary, there are treatments and drugs and machines and things like stem cell research that will mean that a child born today will never have any of the diseases that are so commonplace and hit people so hard today. they will not have so many 5troke5 or cancers, all the other things that can go wrong. not something that shows up in income numbers or house prices but it is a real boon. there is something in that. and you have a spotify, 5martphone5, facebook, lots of

things. this kind of living standard versus the weekly income? the health care benefits are a benefit in itself and a measure of progress but it highlights longer retirements in which people need to raise more assets and wealth to live through them securely. you are right to highlight, it isn'tjust about current incomes. the big ticket items, a decent pension and a house that you own to provide security in retirement, the reason we've highlighted a lot of the current pensioners in today's statistics is not pensioner bashing, it is certainly not generational

war, it is because our concern that this welcome performance in current pensioner living standards is going to be a one generation blip with those generations behind without those assets are unable to secure those living standards. it is a one—generation blip because the pensions you were promised, which you didn't give your parents, which you are now getting, have been much more expensive than anyone anticipated because life expectancy shot up for your generation. what are we doing with our money? most of the people i know are helping to finance people of their children's generation and grandchildren. —— most older people. we are aware of that, we don't want to have money lying if you run a country based on. thatkindef, thinking. ,, 1.12 te 715 r!!! 7eflll§eee§§152§§§f¥3 % "55.

trend, half qf first'time buyers the concern is that inheritance was mentioned in the package, if we rely on greater levels of inheritance to fund asset building for the younger generations, we know that younger people with higher lifetime incomes tend to get those inheritances, we are staring down the barrel of greater inequality in the future. inequality, i think your report said, among his generation is worse than it is amongst the old generation, so you are cascading down inequality. when you argue about whether we should be focusing on intergenerational differences, class, the north and south, the things you mentioned, it's right to focus on those things but one important to focus on these new generational divides, which are very clear, there's a good chance that they will fuel divisions between rich and poor, different social

classes in the future. the issues are connected and they are important. when you were looking at these statistics, is it not right that for the older generation, especially the frail and very old, everything is more expensive? it's more difficult for them to get around, difficult to get the right nutrition, everything becomes expensive and difficult. just getting the basics of a comfortable bed, being able to get out of bed, being looked after properly. we don't want people to live in cold houses and dying in them because they can't afford to put the the heating on. the very old ones are not among the rich are pensioners, it is the younger ones. pension income does not reflect individual experiences, on average we have which, younger of pensioners coming in. you are right to highlight the very old pensioners, the silent generation and our report looks in detail at the increased costs a face and why

the statistics may overstate their living standards. we've got into that detail and not everybody in the pension group is the same. the averages cover a lot of sins. thank you very much. on thursday week, the voters of stoke central will go to the polls to vote for an mp to replace tri5tram hunt. since 1950, when the seat was created, it's been labour. but such are convulsions of politics at the moment, that no—one is at all sure that labour will win it this time. the reason is that stoke—on—trent was firmly for brexit, so in the great schism of our age, the city seems more sure of which side it is on than the labour party is. because of that, a lot of attention is being devoted to this by—election a5 telling us something about whether labour can hold on to blue collar votes outside of london. now, with a by—election pending, you'd expect a programme like this to send someone to stoke to interview the candidates,

follow them canva55ing and probably poke a bit of fun at the theatre of it all. but we decided to do something different — we sent katie razzall to go and talk to the people of stoke central. i worked in the pots most of my life. loved it. stoke—on—trent, it's a little backwater. it is nice, living in stoke. it'sjust poor, really. people are very angry and i think people just want change. eight months ago stoke—on—trent sent tremors through the political establishment when almost 70% of voters here opted to leave the eu. it was a signifier of the fault line5 opening up in britain.

the consequences are still unknown. at the oakcake shop near stoke's vast bentilee estate, people queue to buy what was once the staple food of the potteries. the recipe for oatcakes hasn't changed much in stoke—on—trent for centuries. the same can't be said for the place. going to be. families like kir5ty‘5 have lived around stoke's bentilee estate for generations. once they expected to walk into a job. in the mines, the 5teelworks, or the pottery industry for which stoke is still famed. her aunt marie remembers those times.

i worked in the pots most of my life. you came home at night you were absolutely shattered. but you just had a family, they were really, really your friends. and everybody, just everybody helped everybody. they shut all these pot places down and there was no help. there was nothing. just as if theyjust disappeared off the face of the earth. there's a hell of a lot of people depressed. hell of a lot of people struggling moneywise. and debt. and it isn't as if they go on holiday or they've got a fancy car, they don't have cars, they don't go on holiday. there's people who work and they're slogging and they've got nothing. and it's sort of one week to the next, hand to mouth. it's like we're the forgotten. the overwhelming out vote was a wake—up call. now all eyes are on stoke once again. the labour mp for stoke—on—trent central, tri5tram hunt, is standing down.

the by—election he's triggered is being seen as a test of whether voters in this labour heartland are as loyal to the party as they once were. would everyone on this estate have voted labour in the past? in my opinion, yes. why was that? they were just the working man, weren't they? the working man. it's what your mum and dad did, so you did it. you know, it was tradition, really. they used to be saying, if you put a monkey up for labour, people would vote for it. six and eight, 68. legs 11. whistles. oh, thank you! certainty comes in other forms, wherever you travel in stoke. these days you're more likely to meet an out voter than a labour one. and many of them will tell you how much more vibrant the place used to be. it changed because all the shops have gone, left empty, falling down. there used to be 20 pubs along this high street, 20 pubs. know how many there are now? none.

chris humphries runs the pensioner events at her local community centre, and voted out. i thought that was probably going to be the best thing because we probably could make the elitist government start thinking about the whole of the population. yeah. do you feel that there is an elite and they don't listen? yes. many here told me they do still support labour. but turning round the party's electoral fortunes is still a gamble. in the stoke central constituency, labour lost 27% of its vote share in the last two decades. i always voted labour but then i got thinking about lots of things. labour are fighting amongst themselves, aren't they? and there doesn't seem to be leadership there. and ukip seem to, i don't know, they seem to know what the people want, really. they're so prosperous down in london, i think they think we are a load of idiots or something like that.

do you think that the people you're talking about in the south, do you think we'd listen if you voted in a ukip candidate round here? i don't think so, i don't think they want to know anything about us in the north. where anti—eu sentiment is high. plenty of people i've spoken to say they've had ukip knock on their door in the past few days. the party is clearly sensing an opportunity to make a real breakthrough into labour's heartland. if they do, it will be down in part to a feeling from many that for too long the labour party took their vote for granted. i've lived here now for about 25 years and nobody has ever knocked on my door during election time, ever.

so the labour party don't come? never. conservatives don't come? never. conservatives aren't going to come, are they? liberal democrats don't come? i'm not saying they've never knocked on a door, they've never knocked on my door. and ukip, have they knocked? today. "can we count on your vote?" i said no. labour may still be able to count on marie, but allegiances