This morning's short video has now been published. In it, I suggest that social transformation sounds expensive and complicated, but it could be as simple as supporting youth clubs, which could be massively socially beneficial for remarkably little cost.
The transcript is:
Social transformation need not be complicated.
It sounds like a big deal. It sounds like massive engineering.
It sounds as though vast amounts of money need to be spent.
And I saw a really good article in the last week which asked why don't we reopen youth clubs because there are so many young people in the UK desperate for somewhere to go, something to do, somewhere to meet people in a safe environment, and somewhere that they need not drink - because, frankly, it's very hard to drink if you're under age now and a lot of young people don't want to anyway.
Youth clubs meet that bill. They do actually provide the opportunity for people to get together. I remember them having a very positive role in my life when I was a late teenager. I don't know why they can't for other people still, and I'm sure they could.
If Labour wanted a simple, socially transformative idea, youth clubs could be it.
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Network Rail support Youth/Sports clubs in areas where their property has been subject to vandalism and trespass because they find that it reduces these problems.
Clearly there are a lot of ‘off balance sheet’ benefits that providing activities for people of all ages brings its just that our Political ‘leaders’ either cant or wont grasp them.
To add another idea
1. Increase the National Minimum Wage over the term of the next Government by £1/hour + RPI each year
2. Add an extra 5% a year for hours worked between 6pm & 7am and for any ‘non contracted hours’ ie overtime and zero hours contracts
3. A higher Minimum Wage for Care Home workers, anyone working in ‘Food Service’ ie cafe’s restaurants etc anywhere where alcohol is sold or served and anyone who drives for work
I agree that transformation of society need not be expensive and such things as funding youth clubs could transform the life of many young people.
My parents met at a youth club just before WW2. It was run by a local church but was apparently run on a purely secular basis. By the time I was a teenager in the 60s it had closed down. There were things such as boy scouts locally but they were not really my cup of tea. So I have no personal experience of youth clubs, but I do appreciate their value.
As to places where you can go without being under pressure to drink alcohol, that is something that might be of value to people of any age might appreciate. Before the service was withdrawn some five years ago I would quite often catch the 11pm Greenline coach on the road just outside Victoria rail station. I would have liked there to be somewhere I could quietly have a green tea and read a book in the hour or so I had to kill before catching the coach. I got to know a pair of teenage sisters who regularly caught the same coach having visited their disabled mother who was in a nursing home in London. They too would have liked there to be such a facility but, not wanting to go to one of the many pubs and bars in the area would sit on a bench inside Victoria station for an hour or so sharing a thermos of coffee. It would probably not be profitable to run a small coffee bar at Victoria station at that time of night but it might contribute to the safety of small groups of teenagers traveling late at night. It would not cost much to make the place more people friendly.