Has there ever been a less fortunate generation of young people? The Millennials, those now aged between 20 and 35, have always been told they've never had it so bad. That their parents enjoyed free university tuition, cheap houses and final-salary pension schemes - while their lot has been debt, penury and stratospheric property prices.

David Willetts, the former universities minister, wrote a powerful book about all this that reads like a call to arms. The Baby Boomer generation, he says, "took their children's future" - and "should give it back".

I've spent the last few weeks making a documentary for Channel 4 exploring what is fast becoming a new political battle line. And there's no shortage of people preparing for war. You meet them all time in Westminster: the generational jihadis, who blame the old for the plight of the young. They usually propose some inter-generational justice in the form of a wealth tax. It's a potent idea, much of it based on misunderstanding, but much, too, based on legitimate grievance.

First, the myths. One leading authority on the subject told me that the salary of people in their twenties is lower than was the case a generation ago. Astounding, he said, but demonstrable. When checking this out with the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I discovered a rather different story: that those in their twenties are not only paid more than was the case two decades ago, but their disposable income is a third higher. The halving of the price of clothes, the tax credits that now top up low pay, the economic growth: all have left a mark.