Generation Jones arrives at No. 10

Writer and broadcaster Jonathan Pontell speaks to ePolitix.com about the new generation of MPs. Using statistics from Dods Parliamentary Research Pontell explores the rise in power of ‘Generation Jones’.

For 13 years, Baby Boomers occupied 10 Downing Street. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown came of age during the 1960s — the turbulent decade which triggered cultural aftershocks for the next four. Some assume that the ascendance of post-boomers David Cameron and Nick Clegg once and for all ends that tumultuous era's long grip on British politics. But are the '60s really dead? Hardly.

While the Boomer moment may be over, many don’t understand the generational significance of Cameron and Clegg’s rise. It really marks the 1960s' second act. The difference is that the torch has passed from that decade's "flower children" to its actual children.

Cameron and Clegg are neither Boomers nor GenXers. Instead, they belong to a distinct generation in between, one long under the radar and only now making its full impact felt.

I coined the term "Generation Jones" for this long lost generation, which includes not only Cameron and Clegg, but also over two thirds of the current Presidents and Prime Ministers of EU and NATO member countries, including America’s Obama, France’s Sarkozy, and Germany’s Merkel.

The exact birth years vary slightly between countries; in the UK, GenJonesers were born from 1955 to 1967, and are now 42 to 55 years old.

We Jonesers have long been lumped with Boomers simply because we arrived during the same long post-World War II spike in births. But generations arise from shared formative experiences, not head counts, and the two groups evolved with dramatic differences.

We fill the space between the original Glastonbury revelers and the Acid House ravers, between Twiggy and Kate Moss, and between Abbey Road and Wonderwall. Jonesers have a unique identity separate from Boomers and GenXers. An avalanche of attitudinal and behavioral data corroborates this distinction. Generational self-identification is particularly compelling. When polled, those in this age group identify not with Boomers or GenXers, but overwhelmingly with this generation in between.

So who are we?

We are practical idealists, forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part. The name "Generation Jones" derives from a number of sources, including our historical anonymity, the "keeping up with the Joneses" competition of our populous birth years, and sensibilities coupling the mainstream with ironic cool. It also borrows from the slang term "jonesin'" that some of us as teens in the 1970s popularized to broadly convey any intense craving.

The Jones runs deep in us. It arose from our 1960s childhoods. While the Boomers were out changing the world, Jonesers were still school kids — wide-eyed, not tie-dyed. That intense love-peace-change-the-world zeitgeist stirred our impressionable hearts. We yearned to express our own voice. By the time we came of age and could take the stage, though, a decade of convulsions had left society fatigued. During the game we'd been forced to watch from the sidelines, and passage into university and careers came only after the final gun had long since sounded.

The Boomers had their opportunity, and the GenXers weren't around soon enough to bear witness. Neither was left jonesin'. But the actual children of the 1960s yearned for something more. Our unrequited idealism has bubbled beneath the surface ever since. There is an underlying idealism to Cameron and Clegg which contrasts with GenX politicians like George Osborne. Cameron and Clegg have The Jones. It's a crucial piece of their identities.

Recognizing this generational mindset provides insight not only into the new Cameron-Clegg government, but also into the United Kingdom itself in 2010. Generation Jones has grabbed the mantle of leadership. Approximately a quarter of all UK adults are GenJones members. UK Jonesers have ascended to unprecedented positions of leadership in business and the arts and government. According to Dod’s definitive Parliamentary data, almost half of all MPs in the new Parliament are Jonesers. More than half of the new cabinet is GenJones. Our size, age and influence across the board make us an irresistible force.

But there is something beyond our mere demographic might. What makes us Jonesers also makes us uniquely positioned to bring about a new era. Contrast the pragmatic union between Jonesers Cameron and Clegg with the years of battling between Boomers Blair and Brown. Our practical idealism was created by witnessing the often unrealistic idealism of the 1960s. And we weren't engaged in that era's ideological battles; we were children playing with toys while Boomers argued over issues. Our less-ideological pragmatism allows us to resolve intra-Boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. We can lead.

Last century, Thomas Wolfe wrote that another generation wasn't lost so much as undiscovered. "And the whole secret, power and knowledge of their own discovery," he declared, "is locked within them — they know it, feel it, have the whole thing in them — and they cannot utter it."

Generation Jones is clearing its throat. Its voice is at last ready to be heard. We are finally scratching the itch of The Jones. For Boomers, the legacy of the 1960s is ideology, but for Jonesers it is more about idealism. That spirit of the sixties is far from dead; its seeds were planted in us as children then, and are flowering now. We're not late Boomers; we're late bloomers.

Jonathan Pontell is a social commentator who focuses on the intersection of politics and culture. For more information about Generation Jones, visit http://www.GenerationJones.org.uk