I’ve recently got involved with a campaign called Battlefront which is all about combatting Youth Unemployment. You can read all about my involvement [url=http://www.rlfans.com/indexmain.php?fid=41&id=619HERE[/url.

Please support the campaign by following the instructions on [url=http://battlefront.channel4.com/get-involved/petitions/battlefront-iv-petitionHERE[/url

How can we solve Youth Unemployment for good?

Personally I think the solution is groups of people creating something out of scratch and then making it into an asset. Chris Grayling thinks the solution is workfare..

I thought your mate Clegg had it all sorted mate?

Whilst Nick Clegg can back ideas of mine he can’t fund them. The usual organisations that people get funding from turned me down. I sent an email to my local MP to pass onto Nick Clegg recently and neither of them have replied so I’ve had to leave the radio podcast aside for now.

Are you suggesting the Deputy PM is a lame duck?

Not at all.

He’s spent a lot of time trying to do what he thinks right with the youth contract. But unfortunately the youth contract has turned out to be an add on to the work programme.

In the end it comes down to addressing the demand side of the economy.

Lots of people ignore this and just focus on supply side issues like the level of skills and education of the young people. They will say that the reason youth unemployment is high is because most of them lack education. But then you point to high rates of graduate unemployment, and they will say...."yes but there are too many graduates, too many people go to university these days".

You need folk to be able to buy stuff. There aren't any.

Really simple economics isn't it, and it works too.

There was one element, just one small thing that made the recession of 91-ish bearable for most businesses who do business with other businesses, apart from ready access to finance, and that was the cash-back effect of 100% tax relief on capital expenditure, I've no idea how much it cost the government in lost tax revenue that year but I'll bet that the sustained level of business that it created more or less leveled the effect out - and kept millions employed.

The problem lies with not giving youth a chance. Two of the things that the Olympics showed were:

1. That the current generation of youngsters is the best in British history - just need to be given a chance.
2. That people should be allowed to be theirselves (which the ex-military man who headed up the volunteers attrubuted their success to).

I know it's an old theme of mine but the American business school model of dumbing down jobs, scripts and targets, etc destroys creativity, ethics and ultimately business value (see eg the banks, the worst cases in the NHS, etc, etc). The problem is weak, inept management, particulary middle management. Big companies with HR departments like to employ clones so as not to make a "mistake." By doing so they often ignore the best people. Senior management should do the interviewing, IMO, were it is feasible.

As a recent personal example, a graduate lad I know was struggling to get a job so he asked if he could work for us for experience. After 6 months he started applying for jobs in our field. Got a job with a major firm and has just come top equal in the world in one of his professional exams. Just shows what our young people can do if given an opportunity.

So, Damo, keep up the good work.

It’ll be interesting to read what other people think of this statement but it’s absolutely spot on. My generation are the product of many generations work – whilst not perfect we certainly deserve to be dealt with a better hand than what some of us are currently been dealt with.

What’s disappointing above all is back in the day the unemployed got to build Leeds Civic Hall which has paved the way for years of civic engagement. The unemployed must have felt they were building a future back then. These days the unemployed get shoved in ASDA stacking shelves.

Take a look at The Olympic Closing Ceremony thread. It's the same issue - fat, middle-aged blokes who still think The Who are great stuffing our younger generation.

great campaign D-L and all the best with it but to say the 'current set of youngsters are the best in british history' is laying it on a bit IMO
people of my generation (including The Who, ironically !) would have said the same at the time with the only difference being in my younger days jobs were more easy to find - the lack of jobs for the youth of today all over europe is alarming so any intiative such as yours is to be applauded mate
but don't underestimate the contribution made by my generation and the one after, they weren't necesarily the 'good old days', just a bit easier to cope with maybe ?

Perhaps it is an ego taking over when someone claims that their generation is the best. However I did also mention that my generation is a product of many generations work including your own so music for example as an art form is progressing all the time.

As much as I’m not a fan of One Direction, I thought their piece during the opening ceremony was one of the better ones throughout because they performed like a group in their prime. Likewise I thought that Freddie Mercury on screen was the highlight of the whole closing event because it showcased a talent is his prime rather than one living off past glories. Technology is getting so good now we can make great performances of yesteryear seem very realistic. For example 2pac was back as a holographic on stage earlier this year.

I don’t think things were easier in your day – it was just more hidden because the world didn’t have the internet back then to debate these things with the amount of information we have access to these days. In all as a species we should have gone onto better things by now. But someone somewhere is holding something back!

Thanks for the complents so far everyone

I didn't watch the ceremony so I can't judge on the musical performances on offer but the mid 60s to the mid 70s saw a massive leap in musical terms - probably the biggest progression musically there has ever been ?
jobwise, it was relatively easy to find employment compared to nowadays and one could change jobs when you wanted almost - my lad who is now 25 managed to find work after a few months in England (he applied for posts anywhere in europe) with two Masters with honours from La Sorbonne in his pocket and he realises how lucky he is to have a relatively stable employment - he knows he will probably be on the scrapheap when he hits 40 ish so is preparing for his working future - we live in an uncertain and unstable world and I fear for the youth of today and even more for the next generation

I don't know if they are 'doomed' to paraphrase the famous undertaker or if solutions can be found but it's hard to be optimistic nowadays - apologies if I sound negative but that's the way I believe many people of my age feel...

as I said, good luck to anyone with possible solutions and they will have my total support

I think fans of the prodigiously talented Mozart might disagree.

Damo - there have been many times when it has been difficult to find jobs. It was in my era so I got on a train to London. In fact, back then half the population of Liverpool decamped to London and Milton Keynes.

Yes, it's amazing what Mozart managed to produce in his short lfetime (about 600 pieces in about 25 years !) but I would argue that quantity doesn't equal quality and that Tchaikovsky changed the face of music more than dear old Amadeus and the progression from Tchaik to The Mighy Handful was even more important only to be surpassed by Mahler & co and then the big leap to the likes of Shost, Stravinsky, Scriabin and the brilliant Prokofiev et al who really changed the face of modern classical music.Probably the biggest musical progression of the so called classical era ie. post baroque (bearing in mind 'Classical Music' dates from about 1750 - 1825 ish followed by 'Romantic' then 'Modern Classical' etc)

bet jobs were plentiful then ?




we really need a classical music thread and keep on topic maybe ?

We’ll leave the music behind now till it becomes relevant again in this thread.

A lot of graduates have gone through and are going through what your son went through. Although credit to your son he does tend to have a lot more higher education qualifications than the average long term unemployed graduate. I’m glad he’s found something to do.

I think the most demoralising thing for university graduates is getting turned down for a relatively easy job like stacking shelves at a supermarket. One of the battlefront campaigners went for a job at ASDA and was told she was unsuitable – like who are ASDA to judge whose suitable and unsuitable to9 stack their shelves? If anyone’s a job snob these days then its employers who turn down well educated people for a menial job. You’d think that the biggest supermarkets in this country would be more than happy to provide employment for our graduates until they find employment in their preferred field. But then again supermarkets have been getting people on the cheap through government programmes that give the unemployed a harsh choice between working for their benefits or not getting any benefits at all. The unemployed in some cases are getting paid under £2 an hour to stack shelves. It’s just a terrible situation for many at the moment but not for everyone.

When tacking youth unemployment I think that the focus is all on the wrong things. Rather than try and look for the solution we end up focusing on the negative end of things. Lobbying the government to stop taking advantage of a bad situation isn’t going to solve anything – they’ve made a decision and there likely to stick with it good or bad.

Likewise protesting at firms who take advantage of a bad situation isn’t going to solve anything. If anything we could end up losing these firms abroad which could make this country much worse off.

Didn’t the unions (as much as I support the unions) back in the day scare many companies to distant shores?

Look at what we’re left with..

yes, it seems a senseless situation at the moment with no easy way out

the french government did as they said and slashed youth unemployment quite easily - unfortunately the apprenticeships that are being offerered were just that, apprenticeships with no job at the end of it - all that happened was that kids were/are being taken on to do the adult (over 25 jobs) which worked out far cheaper for the employers who made people like me redundant - the employers just change apprentices every two or three years to take advantage of he cheap labour - the result is a big reduction in youth unemployment but rocketing unemployment for the 25-50 age groups !

I thought the minimum wage existed in the UK ? how come employers can pay as little as £2 p/h ?

Because they are claiming Job Seekers Allowance or other job related benefits and are forced, sorry, encouraged, to work for nothing at selected major retaillers in order to keep the smugness factor quite high among Daily Mail readers.

It makes zero sense for a company to take on a graduate for a menial job - unless the graduate is intending to work their way up through the ranks - for the simple fact they know they'll be taking on an employee who is actively looking elsewhere and is just filling a gap.

In simple terms, graduates are seen as overqualified for shelf stacking and by hiring inefficiently in that manner the supermarket will only be inviting increased staff turnover and all the associated expense and work hours that will incur - including hiring, training, uniforms, administration, HR & management work hours, etc.

You and certain companies are looking at things totally the wrong way.

If a graduate takes on a menial job in harsh times then that graduate will be forever grateful some company took them on. Lets say someone with a degree in media ends up getting paid to stack shelves at some supermarket and later on they end up getting a job for a big advertising company. They could come up with the campaign that makes that supermarket more money than what it cost that supermarket to take them on for that short period. In fact this graduate could end up making more money for supermarket than it cost them to take on university graduates during harsh times.

But the thing is with supermarkets is greed. They’ll buy things on the cheap and sell lots of things for a profit. They also run things on the cheap and it’s getting cheaper due to the increase of workfare.

Personally I think the biggest problem is that poor people have to find interesting ways for the rich to invest in them. Only this way wealth can be distributed more equally. Until then everything’s going to be hidden away in places like the Cayman Islands.

Thats all rather simplistic nonsense though Damo, you're sounding like someone looking for something to blame rather than moving on.

Buying things at one price and selling them for a greater price is not difficult, you could do it this afternoon, the likes of Ken Morrison did it from almost the same beginnings as you, or at least his father did - buy stuff at one price, sell it for a greater price, repeat every day for several years and with good fortune and a following wind you'll suddenly realise that you're a businessman.

You could do it this very afternoon, indeed these days its even easier to do so - go on ebay to the wholesale lots and invest £50 in yourself, or do what the likes of cod'ead do and use your specialise knowledge to look out for individual pieces being sold for buttons and turn them around for a decent margin - I know you don't have a lot of money but you do still manage to blow £50 now and again on a night out, just invest that in yourself and stop thinking that there is some sort of secret to business, there really isn't.

As it happens I’m building a business with a friend this afternoon.

We’ll be partnering up with an endless stream of local artist who’ll promote this brand and in return we’ll promote them. Already got a hot girl band on board



My mate gets to take photos and I get to write - something we both love to do.

There’s endless empty venues we can hold events at.

This brand will probably have its residence at one of the bars in town where I can write about how ace it is. It won’t be long before others come knocking on the door asking for the same thing!

Your mate gets to take the pics of some nubile birds, and you get to write?

reckon you drawn the short straw there