Youth Unemployment

Alan Milburn has published the first part of his report on Youth Unemployment. 

The Guardian ends its leader on target when it says say ‘there needs to be work’. What is the point in training for jobs that don’t exist?

I have spent the last five years exploring the story of British manufacturing witnessing from afar how more and more people were drawn into the business of making things. I have noted that there were years where jobs were good and reasonably paid. I have then seen jobs disappearing. 

Yes, some went overseas, but others went because the job was done. We had everything we needed; marketeers then worked at persuading us we needed more.  Or we can think of much of our infrastructure, the job was done we have a national grid. We now see that that that work needs doing again. 

Mechanisation did replace people, but if demand grew those people found work. Demand for many things is if anything shrinking. 

So what can young people do?

We need more houses and they need to be built by people. AI can’t do plumbing. The existing housing stock needs upgrading and insulating and this definitely needs people.

The care sector is growing and demand is not being met. The same is true within the NHS. These are people-facing jobs where AI won’t work.

People talk of fast growing tech businesses and it is true that these need people, but not that many and those needed require high qualifications. 

It may be true that ultimately it will be the few which drive the economy. When that becomes the case, people, not just young people, still need work. There are always jobs to be done and payment can be achieve by a universal basic income. 

Government needs to acknowledge that, as manufacturing employment reduced, manufacturing activity didn’t and it was capital which benefitted. So there is a tax dimension too.

I have seven grandchildren and I want them and their peers to have fulfilling lives.

The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ - Philip Pullman

 This book is both disturbing and rewarding. Whilst Pullman emphasises that it is a story, it does follow, in a great many respects, the story of Jesus as told in the Gospels.

There is a jarring early on as the Annunciation is replaced by a rather equivocal scene with Mary and an angel in the guise of a young man. The result is twins and this provides the machinery of the plot. The elder, Jesus, is a good man who does not claim to be God. His younger and weaker twin brother, named Christ, has no such scruples. Jesus is passionate about calling all to repentance for the Kingdom of God is very close at hand. Christ is altogether more circumspect.

There is real pleasure in coming across stories from the Gospels told so refreshingly and well. That of the Prodigal Son would come first on my list. But there are then those stories, which although based on the Gospel account, deviate in some material way. This can both upset and let the hackles rise, until the note on the back cover is recalled: This is a Story. It is a story and, for a story to work, particular actions and motivations must be present. On a second reading and on reflection these deviations begin to shed light. Some are precious Gospel stories and so the deviations also jar deeply.

Peter’s confession at Caesarea Phillippi is met by a furious denial by Jesus, but, in the context of this story, this is in character. The Feeding of the Five Thousand in this story is about sharing. The parable of the wise and foolish virgins is given an intriguingly different twist. With others the precious elements are missing. The journey to Emmaus has none of the burning in the disciples’ hearts as the scriptures are revealed; Jesus is not recognised as he breaks bread. There is no Last Supper and so no washing of Peter’s feet. The Eucharist is introduced after the resurrection and then misunderstood.

For all the jarring, I found myself drawn yet more closely to Jesus of Nazareth and his goodness and honesty. Pullman has created vivid depiction of the man, even if many Christians would dispute his theology.