Revenge of the forgotten generation: Britain’s revolution may be led not by TikTok teens—but angry GenXers fuelled by “middle-aged misery”
Long ignored, squeezed and seething, Britain’s middle-aged “lost generation” is turning against the system—and could be about to deliver on unfulfilled destiny
Forget the students waving placards and chanting slogans. Britain’s next upheaval may come from a far more dangerous quarter: middle-aged voters who feel cheated, ignored and quietly robbed after decades of doing “the right thing”.
New polling suggests it is not Gen Z but their parents—particularly the long-overlooked Generation X—who are most fed up with Britain’s “broken” economic system and increasingly open to radical change.
Figures from advisory firm Apella reveal a surge of “middle-aged misery” following November’s Budget, with older Britons far more likely than the young to believe the entire economic model has failed them.
The system is broken
A striking 45 per cent of voters aged 56 to 64 said the whole economic system is broken and needs to be replaced with something different. Among 18- to 29-year-olds, the figure was just 34 per cent.
In other words, it is not the supposedly revolutionary Zoomers who want to tear the system down—it’s the generation that grew up with Thatcher, survived Blair, endured austerity and was promised that hard work would pay off.
For many in their 50s, that promise now looks like a cruel joke.
Nearly six in ten voters aged 40 to 54 agreed that “no matter how hard I work, the system is stacked against me”, rising to almost two-thirds among those aged 55 to 64. Just over half of younger voters felt the same.
This is not about left vs right
Support for radical economic change was strongest among voters who backed Reform UK, with 56 per cent calling for a complete overhaul. Almost half of Green voters agreed, as the party pushes wealth taxes on the super-rich and boasts soaring membership.
Labour voters, by contrast, were the least rebellious: just 18 per cent supported replacing the system entirely, while 30 per cent of Conservative voters shared that view.
The polling, conducted in early December just days after Rachel Reeves’s second Budget, suggests a dangerous political fault line is opening up—and it runs straight through middle England.
This is not about left versus right: it’s about the haves and have nots.
Lost and betrayed
James Kirkup, a partner at Apella, said it is the parents of Gen Z who are now demanding change.
“Many people in their 40s and 50s feel they’ve worked hard for decades but aren’t seeing any rewards,” he said, “the cost of living just keeps rising, and retirement seems a distant, grim prospect”.
Ignored by politicians, written out of pop culture and squeezed from every direction, Generation X may yet prove to be of significance.
If a revolution is coming, it won’t be hashtagged. It will be driven by those who’ve waited and finally run out of patience.
Many among Generation X have a clear sense that their lives did not turn out as they expected—revolution that delivers Our Fair Future offers them the seductive chance at a second bite of the cherry and to finally deliver on unfulfilled destiny.