Over a million young people aged 16 to 24 are currently not in education, employment or training. Former Cabinet Minister Alan Milburn argues that without urgent action, that figure could rise to one in six within five years.
How has this happened? Milburn points to young people’s ‘aspiration’, but a job market that is failing them, following increases to employer’s national insurance and the minimum wage. Julia adds young people’s attitudes… and failed parenting.
Ryan Wayne from the Tony Blair Institute joins the show to discuss the report, as well as Tony Blair’s criticism of the government. Julia questions his boss’s legacy — mass immigration from Eastern Europe, the 50% university target, and net zero — arguing they systematically dismantled opportunities for a generation of young Brits.
Lord Daniel Hannan, incoming Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, lays out the economics that have led to our current malaise: punishing hikes in National Insurance, the Rayner Employment Rights Bill, and a near two-thirds rise in the minimum wage since lockdown have made hiring young people a risk too far for businesses.
Add to that a welfare system riddled with perverse incentives, a surge in mental health diagnoses with patients coached by online influencers, and a lockdown hangover we've barely begun to recover from — and the picture is bleak.
Also: Dame Helen Mirren, 80 years old and walking through London with her husband, is subjected to a foul-mouthed tirade by a pro-Palestine activist.
Philip Ingram MBE connects the dots between Iran's Revolutionary Guard and the radicalisation driving these shocking street confrontations.
Julia Hartley-Brewer broadcasts on Talk from Monday to Thursday, 10AM to 1PM.
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