Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Cabinet under her Conservative Party government, has been making moves towards gaining the trust and support of young voters with some new measures. Targeting young voters is a political strategy that worked for Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party in the general election earlier this year, and now Hammond is going for the same thing.
Hammond’s plan is to introduce a special new railcard for travellers who are under the age of 30, which will mean lower rail fares.
He’s calling it the Millennial Railcard and it’s been met with a mixed response. He was expecting younger voters to get down on their knees and worship him, but some of the measure’s critics have called it “an insult to a generation he doesn’t actually intend to help.” That’s what The Independent are saying, anyway.
The Millennial Railcard is the sign of a failing economy
Obviously Hammond can’t keep a handle on the British economy if we’re in a place where people who are thirty years old require a railcard to travel. In fact, the very fact that it’s called the Millennial Railcard shows that something’s up. It’s like when American politicians talk about the “war on drugs” and you can tell they’re really talking about a war on racial minorities.
This time, Hammond is using the term “millennial” in a seemingly derogatory way.
The millennial generation have got a bad rap with wealthy right-wing older people (of which Philip Hammond just so happens to be one) for being what they perceive as lazy and poor. A railcard for people up to the age of 30 is very patronising. This country just keeps going further and further down the tubes.
At least we’re not butting heads with North Korea, but a failing economy can still suck even if it isn’t necessarily an impending nuclear war.
The current railcard system is completely unpretentious and uncondescending, unlike Hammond's proposed one. It is simply called a 16-25 Railcard, not any of that “Millennial Railcard” funny business.
It applies to regular travellers between the ages of 16 and 25, which are ages where people do struggle to afford rail fares, especially if they’re on and off trains all the time on the commute to school or work or university. The 16-25 Railcards cost £30 a year and at certain times on certain trains, you can get up to a third off your train tickets. If you travel regularly enough, then you can really start to see some savings.
Budget announcement expected on Wednesday
The budget will be announced on Wednesday, which is when these announcements are expected to take place, although there may be some changes following the sour reception to Hammond’s pitch. This pitch also involves a proposal that will save graduates the hassle of overpaying their Student Loans.
Our economy is just getting trickier and trickier. Student loans are another problem with the money flowing through the UK, because thousands and thousands of pounds are handed out every year and very little of it actually gets paid back.
But this is just Hammond desperately pandering to university students who are facing years of immense debt and financial hardship. These are the same students that voted for Labour in the general election, and they’re not dumb enough to fall for something so vain. Well, some of them are, but those people tend not to bother going to a polling station to vote. The new Millennial Railcard with a new discount for under 30s is expected to come into place in early 2018, although exactly how much the discount will be remains unclear at this time. We’ll just have to see when Hammond makes the announcement tomorrow.
