The young and old can easily rise above the great generation divide

Vince Cable, it seems, has read the mood. It’s time for the old and the young to start co-operating. If the 74-year-old former business secretary becomes leader of the Lib-Dems, it is believed he’ll give up his post to Jo Swinson, 37, within three years.

The rumour comes as it is revealed that we are now more divided by age than we are by class. This week Ipsos MORI estimates that 62 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted Labour in the latest election, while 61 per cent of over-65s voted Conservative. Although the Lib-Dem vote was more balanced, the results overall reveal the biggest generational divide since 1979, when MORI’s records began.

History tells us to beware the divorce of the generations. The ancients knew exactly what could happen when one generation failed to entertain the other’s perspective. Barred from entering the senate until they were 30, young Romans of the first century BC felt largely unrepresented by their leaders. Disaffected, they found themselves captivated by the dangerous demagogue Catiline.

Yesterday’s “Day of Rage”, organised by the “youth-led” Movement for Justice By Any Means Necessary, capitalised on the sizeable swing to the Left among 25- to 34-year-olds in this summer’s election, not to mention the Grenfell Tower tragedy. Its hashtag #DownWithTheGovernment would have tickled Catiline. Like Jeremy Corbyn, Catiline appealed to the young despite being middle-aged, sparing “neither expense nor decency in his efforts to make them loyal and obedient to himself”. It was as if he had promised to abolish their tuition fees, as well as all debt.

The coup failed. Like yesterday’s protests, it did little to challenge suspicions among the older population that the youth are too impressionable to be trusted. Today’s Left-leaning, label-hating youths still baffle their elders. Disillusionment is mistaken for apathy, altruism for childish idealism. The raging few are taken to represent the many.

An ancient problem calls for an ancient solution. Look to Socrates — the 70-year-old philosopher paid the ultimate price for knowing how to bridge an age gap. His tireless conversations with Athenian youths on all things from virtue to knowledge won him notoriety, so much so that he was condemned to death for “corrupting” their minds. Socrates was dangerous because when he spoke the youth listened and began to think. Presenting himself as their midwife rather than lecturer, he conducted thorough examinations of their thoughts and eased delivery of their best ones. As Cable and Swinson will hopefully find, labour pains are less painful than Labour pains.

Daisy Dunn’s Catullus’ Bedspread is published by William Collins (£9.99)