BBC Scotland tonight held an online debate to end a week of special features on Generation Y. The theme was to discuss why millennials were likely to be poorer than their parents.
Subjects such as education, employment, housing and life after Brexit were covered.
I was particularly moved by Charlotte’s experience in the workplace – being made to work a trial shift with no training and no pay. It’s all too common in retail and hospitality these days and should be outlawed.
Our Christine Jardine MP was on the panel. The audience overwhelmingly agreed with a point she made – that the Government had failed to get the balance right on education. She added that university was not the only route to success and nor was leaving school and going to uni the only way you could get a degree.
She highlighted her dislike of the phrase “affordable housing,” saying that all housing should be affordable.
On employment, she emphasised that people need to be guaranteed a certain number of hours of work because they have financial commitments to meet. Watch the whole thing here. It’s pretty disgraceful that neither the Scottish nor the UK governments sent anyone along. Enjoy.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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4 Comments
“Why are young people set to be the first generation in history worse off than their parents?”
I’m not sure that the premise of this question is correct. It’s happened before due to famines, plagues, wars and maybe the 30’s depression too.
But why has it happened now when GDP is some 2.5 times what it was when Margaret Thatcher became PM? Why can we supposedly not afford now that we are richer what we could afford when we were poorer? The only possible explanation has to include the distribution as well as creation of extra wealth.
I know I do keep banging on about Economics but the mainstream of this supposed profession has a lot to answer for.
I to do not like this word affordability.\What does it mean? A rented house is affordable to some. A single bedroom flat to someone else, A 2 bedroom house for a young family. Their ‘affordable” level is different. A list of house prices should be written from rental up to the largest mansion so that people know what they can aim for. Other ideas should come forward to discuss the way ahead.
Planning rules should be changed so that small builders are not penalized by the fat cats .
I hear that in the Channel Isles the 2nd home problem is being explored. A 2 market system is in development Could not in Cornwall Devon ,other areas, not only the council tax system be contiinued but for example natives get first crack at new builds and outsiders then can come in but the price of purchasing the house is higher.
Equally there is nothing wrong with new modular housing that are happily lived in in Europe and China that also cost less to build.
With Brexit the European Investment Bank’s £1billion that was distributed to the UK for social house building is to be cancelled. Will the UK Govnt fund the difference? Fewer houses will lead to more homeless crowding problems. A worse housing crises. More houses MUST be built.
What those at the bottom need is either a reformed EU so that we can control free movement OR Brexit provides the opportunity to design a migration policy that meets the needs of the British born population and THEN you can legislate for quality workplace environments and terms and conditions. One follows the other. It’s a Brexit bonus. The third thing you need to do is reform JCP but you won’t do that as it impacts sections of the civil service and you are too cowardly to.
However, the Lib Dems really believe in open borders that affect those at the bottom the most including recent migrants. I guess very few Lib Dems actually speak to or understand anyone that is in insecure working environments thus we have the FIRST article about this subject EVER on LDV.