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Life in the European Parliament with MEP Peter Skinner: A lost generation?
Our young people are our future. I don’t say that as a vague platitude or as the father of young children but in a very practical sense. They are tomorrow’s doctors, nurses, construction workers, teachers, retail workers and so on.
Or rather they have the potential to be.
Parliamentary arguments over the economy can often seem a bit detached and fuelled by political point scoring but they have very real consequences.
We are facing a crisis of youth unemployment. The latest figures make for grim reading and show there are now over one million young people out of work – that means nearly one in four 18-24 year olds is unemployed; the highest number since records began. That is a disaster for our young people and a disaster for the future of Britain.
Worse, it now appears that unemployment is becoming entrenched. The number of young people claiming JSA for over six months is rocketing:
In Hastings & Rye the figure has jumped 83% in the last year. In Bexhill & Battle the figure is up 53% and Eastbourne 218%!
Spending so long on the dole at a young age can have life-long consequences. Far too many skilled youngsters are being left frustrated and idle because the jobs they want simply don’t exist.
We often hear Conservative Ministers blaming unemployment on laziness or scrounging but the truth is that in some of these places there are up to 20 JSA claimants per vacancy at the job centre! This is a jobs crisis not one of apathy.
The Government is creating a jobless generation, with more young people out of work than ever before. It is painfully clear that the Government’s welfare to work programmes are not doing the job and the time for dithering is over – Ministers must act now before a generation is left scarred by their mistakes.
As part of Labour’s five point plan for jobs I want to see a £2billion bankers’ bonus tax with the proceeds invested in up to 100,000 jobs for young people and a tax break for small firms taking on new employees.
We need to get the economy going again and we need to protect our young people from the blight of unemployment.
If you want to get in touch just email me at southeast@peterskinnermep.eu
And don’t forget you can learn more on my website (www.peterskinnermep.eu) and you can follow me on Twitter (@PWSkinnerMEP) and Facebook (Peter Skinner MEP).
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Comments
There are 6 comments to this article
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nightriderM
Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 11:26 PMDoes one really have to be called a racist to see and realise that the more immigrants we let in the less work there is for those already here,surely this is not rocket science. In general the vast majority of unemployed people are NOT the scrounging lay-abouts that some people like and want to believe
Veracity
Friday, March 9, 2012 at 08:13 PMSorry. Used a 'potential swearword' there. Just mentioning that my brother in law who runs a car dealership in Berkshire just can't get English car valeters who'll do the job for longer than a couple of weeks before they start going sick, idling, getting in late or leaving early etc. As a result he employs a team of Polish men and women who do a cracking job 100% of the time. Perhaps schools should teach the work ethic instead of filling pupils heads with left wing human rights garbage that just doesn't hack it in the real world!
Veracity
Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 07:03 PMComment removed by moderator
roneoron
Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 11:35 AMHeard the UKIP deputy leader on Question Time the other night. Of the four waitresses working in his hotel restaurant one was Congolese, one Latvian and two were Poles! Repeat that across the country and small wonder British youth is spending the day in bed playing on their computers while HMG is paying them and getting nothing in return! How much longer can this madness be sustained?
Asc
Friday, February 24, 2012 at 09:50 PMThe commitment of the last labour government was British jobs for British workers. The new jobs went to immigrants so the electorate were mislead. Under the legislation put in by labour it is illegal to even bar those who do not even have a visa when recruiting (you have to help overseas candidates get one). The high level of immigration is a direct cause of youth unemployment. No government could create enough jobs to solve the whole worlds unemployment problem. Your party is responsible for throwing a generation on the scap heap for the sake of political correctness and EU dogma. You should hang your head in shame because having broken promises and signed the EU constitution we cannot even control our own borders without leaving the EU. So I would like to hear from our UKIP MEPs NIgel Farage and Marta Andreason who are now trying to do just that.
roneoron
Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 02:18 PMPointless investing that 2billion in jobs in the UK as 99% of those jobs will be taken by polite, English speaking Poles with a strong work ethic. Look at the hysterical rants by the left wingers when it was suggested that our Jobseekers work for their benefits at the likes of Tesco. 'Slave Labour!'
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