Sit up, fasten your tie and pay attention

By Sam Bumby

We’re the embodiment of broken Britain. A generation of yobs, of hoodies and violence. An apathetic generation, not bothered about the world and only interested in the latest celeb gossip, hooked to the tv screens for ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and the ‘X Factor’ and busy wasting our lives on facebook and twitter. That’s when we’re not terrorising old ladies and generally being malicious, hanging round estates in gangs and intimidating passers by with glaring looks. The consensus that this is what the youth of today are like is backed up by a press that loves to spread doom and gloom, but all it does is marginalise young people and illustrates how out of touch adults are with today’s teenage culture.

So you would think, that when teenagers found a cause that they passionately believed in, and organised protests and demonstrations to oppose the government’s damaging education reforms, that the media would be supportive of teens finally breaking down the stereotypes? Of course not. And it’s not just the media, the sneering from the political classes at a bunch of kids thinking they can change things was astounding, and not simply from the Tories. Why did Ed Miliband feel it acceptable to throw his weight behind a general march against the government, but when it came down a policy that would cripple youngsters with a lifetime of debt did he not support the mobilisation of the ‘apathetic generation’? Probably because the ‘March for the Alternative’ had such vague aims, and Miliband knows that although Labour voted against the increase in fees, they commissioned the report and had they been in power they might had to have taken the same decision. (I would talk about how direct action often brings results and compare the battle for university places regardless of income with the suffragettes, but given the widespread ridicule of Ed Miliband when he made similar statements to the TUC march, and given that this government’s attitude towards feminism is that it deprives working class men of jobs, it might not be an effective comparison.)

I’m a Labour Party member because I believe in the party’s message and am dedicated to fighting the Tories. But there is really no use winning back power if it’s not wielded effectively. Our MPs voted against the bill in the commons, but will it be repealed and another, fairer system for funding education be implemented? We don’t need more broken promises and we certainly don’t need another Nick Clegg. It is small wonder that friends all around me have no interest in politics because they believe every party is the same and no one is acting in their interests. It’s a vicious cycle whereby politicians care less about young people because they are less likely to vote, but then young people don’t see the need to vote because nothing effects them, and it keeps on going until we reach a situation where young people are completely marginalised.

Labour should be the natural home for young people, generally more open minded and wanting to better themselves and others less fortunate. The party seems to be making progress and taking steps in the right direction, using social media etc. to get the message out to teenagers, but it still has a long way to go. However well intentioned, the ‘Join for 1p’ initiative is almost as patronising as Cameron’s ‘Hug a Hoodie’ scheme (I’m wearing a hoodie and I live in a middle class suburb, they’re not the preserve of deprived kids on estates, they’re culturally acceptable and comfortable, which believe it or not is the most important point). People will join the Labour Party because they agree with what we’re doing and want to get involved, savings of a pound or so aren’t going to shape ideology (It’s £5 to join Conservative Future, in case you were interested). A story that made me laugh recently (and was the inspiration for this post) was an 18 year old beating the leader of the Lib Dems on Liverpool council. Obviously it was a great win under exceptional circumstances and we cannot constantly run teenagers, but it was the kind of gesture that shows us that the Labour Party is committed to our generation.

The media are never happy discussing teenagers unless they’re vilifying them, so I know that Ed Miliband has to tread carefully to avoid possibly offending those all important newspapers or else be labelled ‘left wing’, (although personally, I think it’s good not to have a pseudo-Tory as the leader of the Labour Party) but he could at least stand up for his party’s record on education whilst they were in government, and not just sit silently whilst they talk about children being dumbed down and exams ‘not being as hard as they used to be.’ If Paul Dacre and his chums at the Mail want to come and sit my exams for me then they can be my guest, but I sincerely doubt they would just breeze through them without intensive study beforehand.

“The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers.”

It could have come straight out of the Daily Mail but it was written over two thousand years ago by Socrates. The relationship between one generation and the next is always going to be challenging, especially in the modern world where attitudes have changed radically over the past fifty years and many social norms have been disregarded. But decisions taken now by politicians are going to radically alter our lives in the future, whether it be on universities or economic growth, or the huge threat of climate change bearing down upon us. The Labour Party needs to stand up for young people and make sure our concerns are not sidelined because it is the right thing to do, and not least because otherwise apathy will kick in and the destruction of a future core vote will leave us in ruins.