It’s clear to me from conversations with my constituents that people are very, very anxious about their financial security and that of their families. They’re worried about making ends meet, worried about getting into debt, worried about student loans. They’re concerned that young people will struggle to get a good start in life: good qualifications, a good job, their own home.
So policies that can address this should be seized on by the government. Investing in future generations makes the best economic sense. Yet it’s the younger generation who already face poorer economic prospects who are being hit by the spending cuts.
From EMA to student loans, it seems they’re first in the firing line. They’ll receive less support with housing costs until they reach age 35. Locally, concessionary fares are being axed, putting up the cost of public transport. Everywhere you look, young people are feeling the pain.
Politically this sort of attack would be much harder to achieve if targeted at older
people. It’s often said such policy choices reflect older people’s greater propensity to vote. I am concerned that young people appear to be uninterested in politics. But I’m also sure that it’s relevant, effective policies, more than new media strategies and party reform, that should be our priority in drawing young people towards politics. That means we need to do more to understand young people’s concerns – but it means we should be bolder about our values and policies too.
Key to that must be a focus on equality, something that the government’s desperate to slide off the agenda, with its focus on social mobility. Of course, we should support the opportunity for every young person to fulfil their own potential. But policies that advance only some young people – those who rise, or are assisted, to the elite – are policies that fall far short. Labour must argue for systemic measures to deliver economic justice as the prerequisite for greater prosperity for all. The EDM I’ve tabled is intended to support such an approach.