Category Archives: Baby Boomers

The toxic legacy of Boomer-blaming

If you had a baby in the new year, congratulations—you’ve given birth to a new generation. According to the Australian research consultancy McCrindle, as of January 2025, babies will no longer be “Gen Alpha” but, somewhat underwhelmingly, “Gen Beta.” Apparently, they’ll be a lot like the “Alphas,” born between 2010 and 2024, but shaped even […]

Generational conflict: are Boomers and Zoomers at war?

My talk for the European Union of Women on 28 January 2025.     

The biggest misconceptions about Gen Z, Boomers, & Millennials

I enjoyed taking part in this episode of The Next Generation podcast, with 19-year-old host Elliot Bewick. We discussed everything from generation labels and Boomer-blaming to the Covid lockdowns, depoliticisation, populism, parenting culture and education.

What are boomers like in Spain?

I am quoted in a feature article by Rosanna Carcaller, in La Vanguardia: “The idea that the baby boomer generation is responsible for all the economic, social, and political problems we face today is a myth, constructed by politicians and commentators (…). Blaming the boomers is a toxic mix of anxieties about an aging population, concerns […]

The pensions ‘quadruple lock’ is not an attack on the young

As the UK Labour Party cuddles up to the youth with a cynical pledge to give votes to schoolchildren, the ailing Tories have doubled down on the grey vote, promising further protections to the state pension via the ‘triple lock plus’, or ‘quadruple lock’. Yes, this may be a shameless bribe from Sunak and Co. But does that mean it’s actually […]

‘This House Would Respect Our Elders’

My speech at the Cambridge Union, 23 November 2023.

The real chaos of the ‘new normal’

“Generation gap” is a term that trips neatly off the tongue, often used to describe banal differences between older and younger people in matters of cultural taste, approaches to work, political opinion, and myriad other features of social life. Just yesterday, The Times added sex to that list, telling us that Gen Z, compared to their elders, […]

‘Ok, Boomer’: la socióloga británica que descubre la trampa de la guerra generacional

El Confidencial has published a long interview with me, by Ana Ramírez: Millennial: si quieres comprar una casa, deja de gastarte el dinero en tostadas de aguacate. Es lo que vino a decir el millonario y promotor australiano Tim Gurner en 2017, preguntado por la crisis que atravesaban los jóvenes en su país natal. “Sus expectativas son muy, muy altas”. Aguacates […]

Behind the myths about the Generation Wars

One of the greatest myths of the 21st century is the idea that we are living through an era of generational conflict. Thanks to a clash of values between old and young, and the pinch on social and economic resources caused by an increasingly ageing population, the conventional narrative holds that, in the West at least, […]

Generation Z – Suffering From Peace?

Discussion organised by Free Speech Champions, 6 July 2021.