𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Youth unemployment has hit almost one million, with the rate being a shocking 16.2% – up from 14.2% in just the last year. Labour has set off a youth unemployment time bomb with its high costs of employing people such as the minimum wage changes and workers rights. But don’t worry, they have called in former Blairite health minister Alan Milburn to investigate why 946,000 16 to 24-year-olds are not in education, employment or training – even though the answer is blindingly obvious.

Milburn’s report out this week is coming down hard on social media after every one of a group of ten 12 and 13-year-olds said they went to bed between midnight and 3am because they were scrolling on their phone leading to poorer sleep and mental distress impacting their ability to work, calling them the bedroom generation.

That may well be true, but the single biggest factor keeping young people out of the work place has been the high cost of employment on businesses. Whilst ever those are in place, young people won’t be given a chance to work, so will end up scrolling in their bedrooms. That’s the result of unemployment, not the cause of it.

What an absolutely fabulous outlook Jennifer Saunders has developed. She’s delighted to do cameo roles, like the one in her latest film The Magic Faraway Tree, but no more.

Approaching 70 after a career of writing and performing , she doesn’t want leading roles anymore, she’d sooner play small parts and be left to potter around her garden in Devon and read to her grandchildren. That’s what I call a sensible work/life balance.

Thanks Trevor for calling this cobblers out

Full credit to Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips for pointing out the pathetic nature of Reeves’ Summer Savers to help families with the cost of living. Reeves’ wheeze is to reduce VAT on the cost of entry into children’s entertainment over the summer. So, it would reduce the cost of a cinema ticket by around £1.50.

Reeves has taxed people into oblivion and wants credit for handing a puny amount back for this specific purpose. It’s like setting fire to a house and expecting to be thanked for pouring a cup of water onto it.

At the weekend I saw one of the funniest political adverts I’ve seen for a while. It was a social media campaign with a picture of Robert Kenyon – the plumber standing for Reform in the Makerfield by-election – next to a nerdy looking Labour candidate Andy Burnham. The caption said “Vote for the plumber, not the drip”. Brilliant.

What happened to funny Lenny?

Lenny Henry has gone from being funny to becoming a sad joke. His latest cause celebre is demanding reparations for black British people of – wait for it – £18 trillion pounds! John Cleese, aka Monty Python, has joined in the argument reminding Lenny that the British were slaves during Roman occupation for 300 years and then slaves under Norman French for another 300 years.

Guess we’re all up for receiving trillions in that case. Shame Lenny didn’t propose giving the British a bonus for the leading role played in abolishing slavery. The comic has sadly become a clown.