Hackney, London, August 9, 2011. Photo credit: Alexander Tsangarides
Youth unemployment is up, services for young people across the country have been slashed, the Education Maintenance Allowance – which helped low-income 16 to 19-year-olds – has been scrapped and university tuition fees have gone through the roof. Hardly the best climate for young people to feel positive about their future is it?
The riots “were not about poverty” according to the Prime Minister. Yes, there were rioters who were educated, affluent and old enough to known better, but already there is credible research that the worst hit areas did suffer from particularly high youth unemployment, child poverty and low education standards.
In my part of West London, which includes one of the most deprived areas in Britain, there are still free summer schemes which keep teenagers off the streets in the school holidays but noticeably fewer than in previous years. Sure, the park is free and London kids can get a free bus to a free museum but many are nervous about leaving their home turf and well, did you think museums were cool when you were a teenager?
After students took to the streets earlier this year in protest at the cuts to tuition fees, I interviewed a cross-section from poorer backgrounds. Having been rightly proud of making the grade to get to college, they were all depressed about the future. They saw their economic prospects as bleak and were all thinking of dropping out.
Of course you can still lead a good, moral life without money but, as a parent of a child at a London state comprehensive school, I know that the pressure on even the poorest to have the right trainers and phone is huge.
Unlike our leaders, they haven’t been born rich, had the best education money can buy, connections for the first rung on the job ladder, a house in the country and holidays in Tuscany. They don’t have the privilege of high aspirations. This time, Britain’s riots weren’t about race or politics but boredom and resentment. When the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, what’s the incentive to work hard and behave well?