Ed Miliband is entering the great generation war. Earlier this week David Cameron made his pledge never to touch a penny of pensioners’ perks, be they as rich as a duke, shamelessly bribing grey voters. Miliband replies with a pledge to the young.

This is a miserably unequal battle. The left takes the moral high ground, defenders of the weaker and the younger, but it’s an electoral desert as the young and the poor don’t vote. Cameron sinks into the moral low ground, throwing money at those least likely to need it in this electorally rich turf. Will Cameron’s cynicism stick in the craw of some older people? Can Miliband’s defence of the young reach the ears of the Won’t Vote, Hate-You-All generation?

This is an electoral fight to the death. With a baby boomer turning 65 every 41 seconds, and half of voters over 50 in five years’ time, the altruism or selfishness of the old could tip the balance for the foreseeable future.

Cameron banks on naked self-interest, bolstering free TV licences, winter fuel allowances and bus passes, all dwarfed by pension tax and national insurance reliefs. The “triple lock” has raised the state pension by £950, while everyone else’s earnings fell. Labour had already taken a million pensioners out of poverty, so the old were already least likely to be poor. More than 2 million pensioners own assets worth over £1m, as wealth is sucked upwards. Families with children are hit hardest. What vision of the future is that?

In April, George Osborne lets pensioners spend, spend, spend their pension pots on Lamborghinis and gigolos: how many will fall back on younger taxpayers when their money is gone? Osborne’s £15bn pre-election over-65s national savings bonds at a huge guaranteed 4% should be regarded as Eatanswill electoral fraud worthy of the Pickwick Papers.

That free money should have been spent on housing the young. Yesterday’s English Housing Survey showed the rapid fall in home ownership among 25- to 34-year-olds: only 36% are buying, compared with 59% a decade ago. The Institute for Fiscal Studies finds the incomes of the young have fallen much further than anyone else’s, under-31s dropped by 15% compared with 6% for the rest. No surprise that the under-30s’ spending on movies, holidays and eating out fell by a third while the over-75s’ luxury spending doubled – eye-watering facts from the Intergenerational Foundation, defenders of the young.

Miliband pitches his fair deal for the young on housing, pay, jobs and apprenticeships. Cutting tuition fees by £3,000 will be the eye-catcher, paid out of pension tax reliefs. Average student debt is £40,000 – at a sky-high interest rate of 6%. No surprise that between 45% and 65% of graduates will never pay it back, leaving a £280bn Treasury debt – to be paid off by their generation. Poor sixth formers lost the educational maintenance allowance. Careers guidance was dismantled. Contrary to Cameron’s claims, apprenticeships have been cut: the government re-badged training for already-employed older workers as “apprenticeships”. This is no time to be young.

The future is grey – unless Labour can make the old look beyond bribery. Not all OAPs are off cruising. Care for the old is cut by 18%, with half a million fewer receiving any despite 10% more pensioners. Many of the old struggle unaided to care for others. And don’t they worry about their grandchildren? They helped build the welfare state: many still remember pre-NHS days, so surely they think of decent living wages for carers and NHS staff on whom they rely? Attitude surveys show the old are more collectivist and socially minded, so Miliband could tap into that and make them angry at Cameron’s crude bribes.

Can Labour get the young vote out? In 2010, only 51% of the young voted against a 66% turnout. Those who do are far more likely to vote Labour, though 17% are threatening to vote Green – unimportant in rock-safe seats but even a few Green votes in knife-edge Labour/Tory marginals could gift the election to Cameron. In 35 seats, 18-24s make up 20% of the electorate: their vote could be crucial – so long as they block their ears to the posturing inanity of Russell Brand.

Labour promises votes at 16: teachers urging sixth formers down to the polling station could give them a lifelong voting habit. Changing the registration system has, conveniently for Cameron, lost nearly a million from the register, mostly young and poor. By banning colleges and universities from mass registration, at a stroke many are disenfranchised. In 2010, the over-65s had seven times the voting power of an 18-year-old. Don’t let that happen again.