Boris Johnson’s words show he doesn’t care about young people

Val Shawcross AM is the Labour assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark

Boris Johnson follows in the footsteps of Norman Tebbit and Iain Duncan Smith by blaming those looking for work for London’s unemployment. It’s the oldest trick in the Tory book.

Last time a Tory government pushed unemployment into the millions, Tebbit said people should get on their bikes to look for work that didn’t exist. Iain Duncan Smith said they should get on a bus.

And now – when there are 234,000 Londoners fighting for just 33,000 jobs – the Tory Mayor blames their lack of “energy and appetite for work”.

Johnson says in the Sun:

“the jobs are there and people need to have the energy to go out and get them”.

In case you missed the point, he goes on:

“There are large numbers of job vacancies. Why are young people not taking up those jobs? … Let’s talk about the work ethic”.

I’ve visited colleges. I’ve spoken to young people in my south London constituency and across the city and I know there is no problem with their “work ethic”.

What I do see and hear is a generation of young Londoners who are having their dreams and ambitions blocked by a government who sees them as surplus to requirements. There is a very real feeling that they’re being disregarded and sidelined.

Either Boris Johnson knows this but doesn’t care or he doesn’t have a clue about what is happening in the city he is supposed to govern.

There are more than seven people chasing every job vacancy in the capital. In some boroughs the ratio is just frightening. In Haringey, where last summer’s riots began, there are almost 30 people going for each vacancy. In Lewisham there are just 500 jobs for over 9,000 job-seekers.

That Boris Johnson has nothing to say about the circumstances that have led us to this dire situation is a tragedy for London.

Instead of bending over backwards to get people back to work and fighting for our young people’s future – by opposing EMA cuts or unaffordable university fees – the Tory Mayor blames them for their plight. He is blaming the victims of this government’s cruelty for the bleak future it has created.

Nothing better illustrates how out of touch the Mayor is than the way he compares an out of work graduate forced to work at Poundland for her benefits to his first job at The Times newspaper.

Johnson accuses 22-year-old Cait Reilly of “sneering” because she objected to working at the discount shop for nothing. And he implies that she is out of work, again, because she is lazy, saying:

“I couldn’t believe having left university that it really did mean getting up that early and working that long … It’s not forced labour – she’ll learn from it”.

As a new book about the Tory Mayor reveals, when he left Oxford “he had astonishing access to the drawing rooms of power and his dynastic tentacles went further than almost any young graduate of his age. Armed with these connections and many more … he was swiftly taken on by The Times”.

Unfortunately for Cait and the million other young people out of work, not everyone is lucky enough to have the Mayor’s connections or open doors. Boris Johnson and his colleagues in government are closing the doors of opportunity and blaming the young people they’re shutting out.

See also:

• 2012: The year ahead for young people – Alex Hern, January 7th 2012

• Cameron is pricing the young out of education and consigning them to the dole queue– Sally Hunt, December 14th 2011

• Unpaid internships are wrong: We need action, not words, from Clegg and Miliband –Ben Lyons, November 30th 2011

• Million young unemployed figure highlights enormity of the situation hitting our youth– Rory Weal, November 16th 2011

• Cameron and Osborne want the unemployed to work for £1.78 an hour – Alex Hern, November 10th 2011

http://twitter.com/nickygavron/status/160398824597229568 Nicky Gavron AM

Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people, writes @ValShawcross: http://t.co/fLcfGye7
http://twitter.com/jennettearnold/status/160400335221948416 JennetteArnoldAM

Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people, writes @ValShawcross: http://t.co/fLcfGye7
http://twitter.com/navinshaham/status/160402350002024450 Navin Shah

RT @leftfootfwd: Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people http://t.co/gBP9RNoQ
Anonymous

Go to any coffee shop, restaurant, many shops – most front line employees are clearly not from the UK -where are the young londoners?

Are all employers mysteriously biased against UK citizens?

Boris is clearly right, you are clearly wrong. Fact.
http://twitter.com/therightarticle/status/160425986284994562 Michael

Boris Johnson’s words show he doesn’t care about young people – http://t.co/PWgfmVYS
http://twitter.com/phdodd/status/160426505711788033 phil dodd

Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people | Left Foot Forward http://t.co/8K4H3kpr
http://twitter.com/blindfaith100/status/160428807579385857 John Loudoun

Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people, writes @ValShawcross: http://t.co/fLcfGye7
http://twitter.com/tombeck1/status/160429410112118784 Tom Beck

Boris Johnson’s words show he doesn’t care about young people – http://t.co/PWgfmVYS
http://twitter.com/dancareydawes/status/160469348748754944 Daniel Carey-Dawes

Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people, writes @ValShawcross: http://t.co/fLcfGye7
http://twitter.com/mygibbo/status/160471616722190336 Alan Gibbons

RT @leftfootfwd: Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people http://t.co/KMcImYUf
Patrick

Perhaps if our young people learned to speak decent and write English they might have a rather better chance of a job.
http://twitter.com/unitonehifi/status/160516436631097344 chris star

Boris Johnson’s words show he doesn’t care about young people…
http://t.co/jxJOkPCa
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http://twitter.com/joelhcarter/status/160640622921908224 Joel Carter

#Boris ignoring the systemic failures and going for the personal attack. Privilege precluding empathy and sense. http://t.co/tzcI4oEg
http://twitter.com/unite785/status/160658126838833153 Brnch Sec Ruth H

Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people, writes @ValShawcross: http://t.co/fLcfGye7
http://twitter.com/labour52rose/status/160681236950548481 Alex Braithwaite

RT @leftfootfwd: Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people http://t.co/Y0eXlFOm
http://twitter.com/oilywaters/status/160742425151803392 H. O.

RT @leftfootfwd: Boris Johnson's words show he doesn't care about young people http://t.co/hEBRUruD
Ed’s Talking Balls

If it’s so demeaning to work in Poundland or somewhere like it, fine, don’t work there. But don’t expect the rest of us to pay your way while you chase the job of your dreams.

Plenty of us don’t like our jobs. Deal with it and learn, bloody quickly, that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

The only part of this article which stands up to scrutiny is the point that Johnson is extremely privileged and always was. Undeniably true but, given that almost all that is written is partisan and intended to portray Labour as virtuous and Tories as evil, it should be pointed out, for the sake of balance, that nepotism is alive and well across the political spectrum. The Miliband brothers are a prime example.
http://twitter.com/joannemccartney/status/161391111393386496 Joanne McCartney

Boris Johnson’s words show he doesn’t care about young people http://t.co/qM4MRzIU
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2012/01/new-poll-ken-livingstone-leads-boris-johnson/ Ken stays ahead as Boris doubles-down on blaming young people for youth unemployment | Left Foot Forward

[...] sitting on his laurels, however, with a column in the Telegraph that doubles down on his Friday claim that young people were to blame for their own massive levels of [...]
Jonny

The issue with Reily is that if she works as an employee, for a private organisation that needs the labour and can afford to pay her, they need to pay her at least minimum wage. Anything else is illegal. People can bat on about how she should just suck it up, but until I see them cheerily accept a pay cheque for £1 an hour and thank the government that suggested it, they should keep their mouths shut. If they are prepared to work for that, then congratulations, you can have a job cleaning my oven and sleep on my porch.

In regards to this article Boris has yet again said something completely stupid. It isn’t even a surprise any more.
Jonny

The issue with Reily is that if she works as an employee, for a private organisation that needs the labour and can afford to pay her, they need to pay her at least minimum wage. Anything else is illegal. People can bat on about how she should just suck it up, but until I see them cheerily accept a pay cheque for £1 an hour and thank the government that suggested it, they should keep their mouths shut. If they are prepared to work for that, then congratulations, you can have a job cleaning my oven and sleep on my porch.

In regards to this article Boris has yet again said something completely stupid. It isn’t even a surprise any more.
Badgirls_rules

I’m was a fan of Boris until this incident occurred. How dare he say those things – he has come from such a privileged background he has absolutely no idea what it’s like to work for next to nothing and trying live in London. I agree with Jonny – try work for 1 pound an hour, paying his increased transport fair, council tax and living. He doesn’t know about the ordinary people in London and as an Eton boy he never had to be.