On investment in the lives of the younger generation we have a very positive track record indeed under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown but that in itself will not motivate people to vote Labour into power again at the general election, even those voting for the first time who have directly benefitted.
Nor, in themselves, will impassioned exhortations to remember how terrible life was for many young people under the last Tory government, scary though the prospect of renewed Tory rule is. Indeed, as somebody pushing forty, one of the most sobering political facts I have come across recently is that there will be thousands of young people voting in the coming general election who were not even born when Margaret Thatcher was evicted from Number 10 in November 1990.
I hope that parents and grandparents will tell younger voters about the damage that Thatcher and Major did to British society and its public services. And I hope they will point out that, thanks to Labour’s bold actions through the fiscal stimulus, unemployment has risen far less in the most recent global recession than it did in the recessions of the Tory years. But we cannot rely on such living history to win.
Of course, our record in supporting children, young adults and their families will have a proud place in our campaigning, from childcare to tax credits, from Building Schools for the Future to the Educational Maintenance Allowance and from Sure Start to the record number of new apprenticeships.
And we will also campaign on the fact that the Tories would reverse some of the most successful Labour policies and would risk ruining the life chances of another young generation. The Tories are refusing to guarantee current spending on schools, further education, training and apprenticeships; the EMA and Labour’s commitment to ensuring that all 16-18 year-olds have a place to study or train are under threat; the Tory plans for Sure Start are deeply dubious and only this week a high-profile ‘Shout out for a Sure Start’ campaign has been launched, with diverse support from Ed Balls, UNISON, Melinda Messenger and Peppa Pig (no, me neither, but the latter is a big deal with little people, I’m told).
But the top political priority is to set out the new things that Labour would do for children and young people in a fourth term – the positive reasons to vote Labour. Every general election is more about the future than the past, and the strength of our future offer will be the biggest single factor in persuading both our traditional supporters and our middle class swing voters to go the polling station and support us.
What does that mean in practice? What are we offering to the younger generation? An awful lot, actually. Two specific examples: First, Labour’s commitment to the Building Schools for the Future programme means that hundreds more schools will be completely rebuilt or refurbished in a fourth term, and nothing gives a more tangible expression of our commitment to giving kids the best possible start in life. Here in Warrington South, two schools are in the final stages of BSF planning, and local parents and pupils are beginning to realise that both schemes would be scrapped if George Osborne, the MP for neighbouring Tatton, were to get his hands on the Treasury.
Second, the Young People’s Guarantee and its source of funding – the super-tax on bankers’ bonuses. As the name suggests, it is a firm promise that every young person under 25 who finds themselves out of work for six months has a right to a job, skills training or work experience. It may well be that the word ‘NEET’ (Not in Employment, Education or Training) is a strong contender for ‘most dehumanising acronym of the decade’, but the important thing is that the Young People’s Guarantee should mean an end to this phenomenon. Doing Voter ID on the phone this week with #mobmonday (check it out on Twitter… when you finish this column), I was able to tell one recent school-leaver about it. He’s been struggling to find work and was keen to take a look.
The Young People’s Guarantee only came into being at the end of January and needs to become better known, but voters love it, young and old. They instinctively see both that it makes economic sense and that it represents social justice in action – and that was always the essence of New Labour.
In March, the Budget is likely to confirm that the super-tax on bankers’ bonuses will raise £3 billion. This will be spent directly on ensuring that those least responsible for the financial crisis and most at risk of its consequences still have the chances they need to get on in life. The Tories, who believed that the recession ‘should run its course’, would never do something like this and the Young People’s Guarantee is a fantastic example of our forward offer. We should campaign on it with confidence.
More broadly, countless young people still identify with Labour’s core commitment to reducing inequality and promoting fairness; they like our strong environmental credentials and the work that Ed Miliband has done on climate change; they appreciate the new opportunities to experience the arts, culture, heritage and sport that Labour has provided and they are inspired by the prospect of the Olympics returning to Britain in 2012; and they cannot believe that for the Tories the top two priorities seem to be reversing the hunting ban and giving a massive inheritance tax break to the 3,000 wealthiest estates.
The fatuous allegation by David Cameron and George Osborne that Britain is ‘broken’ is offensive to the vast majority of young people, who know that it is false and who know that ‘Broken Britain’ is Daily Mail code for their generation. And the Cameron-Osborne insistence that what Britain needs next is an ‘age of austerity’ naturally jars with the optimism and enthusiasm that most young people have. Plus they suspect that in an ‘age of austerity’ it is the opportunities and services that they rely on that will be first in line for the swift and drastic cuts that a Tory government would make. They are right to be suspicious.
Finally, many young people have simply never been asked if they want to get involved in a general election campaign or to join the Labour party. Give it a go.