Why the Tories are wrong about young people

Have you ever got home from a long shift at work, put your feet up and just as you feel the sofa hit your back, you feel that familiar wave of exhaustion wash over you?

Are you also under 25? Well, you best put your shoes back on because you aren’t tired enough, and I know you definitely don’t deserve that feeling of self-satisfaction you have. You might ask why I ‘know’ this…and the truth is I don’t. Luckily, to save us all from ourselves, we are blessed with politicians that do.

“Workers under the age of 25 are not productive enough to warrant being paid the new National Living Wage”. This comment shamelessly spews out of Conservative Cabinet Office Minister – Mathew Hancock. He was responding to a question about the rise in Minimum wage which will see over 25’s will receive a minimum of 9 pounds per hour starting April 2016. It has, – unsurprisingly – caused a rather large and fully deserved backlash from the community that undeniably he and so many other Members of Parliament are so far out of touch with.

Again, you might be wondering why this is, and how can it be prevented? The truth it, it can’t be prevented. It is already due to take place and so really, our politicians that were put into power to help its people, have hammered the final nail in the coffin, formally asserting that the country’s under 25’s are lazy and unproductive in the world of work. This is not acceptable, and I hope that you, like me, feel that we have been massively under-rated and taken advantage of yet again. One of the main problems I feel that this ignorance stems from, is an almighty gap between the men and women that represent the people, and the actual people they fail to represent.

Most of us, or a large percentage of under twenty fives’ will hold down a job, be it part-time or full-time. This may be to fund studies, or maybe you have taken that leap into the real world to begin your life, it could even be the difference of just having an extra couple of pounds to get something that you enjoy, because living hand to mouth can be very depressing sometimes! Whatever the reason, we very quickly learn that life on your own two feet can be full of complications and stress. From anything like spending 6 hours on the phone sorting out your internet they promised you they’d finish last week all the way to trying to get as much of your deposit back from a greedy landlord as you can! My point is that a lot of these complications, stem from the problem of money, or rather, lack of it.

Today, we are living in a country whose living costs are among the top 10 in the world (number 8 to be precise). And yet the minimum wage for an 18 to 20 year old right now, is £5.30. That’s about enough to buy one 4 pack of loo roll and some cling film in case you’re wondering. For anyone paying out for rent, bills and food the wages that are being supplied are inexcusably and undeniably unbalanced with our society’s costs. These wages could not have been created by anyone who has real life experience in dealing with issues 95% of us face on a day to day basis.

Why do we allow these arrogant few, who have never lived like the majority of the people in the country, and have NO idea what it is like to live with money being a forefront issue, make the rules, deciding who gets all the money? David Cameron never had that job in ‘Jesters’, cleaning sick from the toilets for less than six pounds an hour. He also never spent an entire hour of his wages taking the train from his house to work. These men and women will never ever be able to understand the situation from our point of view, because of a simple lack of experience. It is a case of the blind leading the perfectly able to see.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.