Not a Liberal at Twenty-Five

Usually credited to Churchill, who has no record of saying it and moved the opposite way himself, crossing from the Conservatives to the Liberals at twenty-nine. The earliest strong match is a French version from the 1870s, in which the academic Anselme Batbie credited it to Burke and spoke of being a republican at twenty; a thematic precursor was attributed to John Adams in 1799.

In practice

• A campaign reaches young voters with idealistic appeals and older ones with appeals to security.
• A father tells his student daughter she will see things differently once she has a mortgage.

Possible explanations

One explanation for the pattern the saying claims is life stage: property, children and responsibility make people more cautious. Another is that it confuses ageing with generation, since cohorts carry the politics of their youth.

In its favour

Surveys in many countries find older people more conservative on average than younger ones.

Against it

Panel studies that follow the same people over time find political views largely stable through adulthood, with modest average shifts, so much of the age gap reflects generations rather than ageing.

Standing

Misattributed to Churchill, and contested as a description of ageing. Compare mugged by reality.

Subject

Law & Politics

Essay

The paradoxes of democracy and the quips of partisans