They're just not working
Cut them some slack
Dear lovely people,
How are you enjoying the National Year of Reading? It’s June next month, so we’re coming up to half way.
I must admit, I’m a little taken aback by its success. Everywhere you go, people are buried in Austen, Dickens and Plath. Well, that’s what I imagine they’re doing as they stare into their phones. Ticking off some of the great works.
You may remember back in January, a few people were making an effort. Well, some effort.
On 13th January, there was a big launch at Arsenal’s ground all about how -the Premier League was getting behind the whole initiative. 25% of boys aged 8-18 say they read in their spare time. This isn’t a bad shout.
In a move that gives serious The Thick Of It energy, there was not a single Premier League footballer at the event. The ‘Premier League Chief Policy and Social Impact Officer’ was in attendance, but I’m not sure that she has quite the cultural clout of, say, Mikel Arteta or Declan Rice.
I seem to remember they got famous types to read v short extracts during Today on Radio 4.
Lovely people, do we really believe that anyone, anywhere has read a single word extra because of this initiative? I’m pretty sure they haven’t. Well, there may have been events in schools, but reading a word for pleasure? Nope.
We do want people to read. Reading is good for you, reading makes you more interesting to others. It helps make sense of the world around us. It helps us write good.
What’s to be done? Sadly, I have no good suggestions. If you think reading is dull, there is little that I can do to persuade you otherwise.
I can wax lyrical about the utter beauty of If nobody speaks of remarkable things by Jon McGregor. I can read Map Reference by Simon Armitage and explain how it exactly, exactly reflects the way I feel about the Wonderful Katie and the concept of romance.
It doesn’t matter. Nobody who doesn’t already read is going to care. Someone can tell me why they love Love Island and it’s not going to make me watch it.
We know that the most important factor in deciding behaviour is that it’s what other people do. That’s why websites have badges telling you ‘Most Popular’ on their second most expensive plans. It’s why people ask what other people have in a restaurant.
If most of your peers don’t read, you’re unlikely to read. Creating the critical mass of readers is a worth goal. It’s something we should aspire to.
The National Year of Reading, though, isn’t cutting it. A weak excuse of a box ticking exercise. Preaching to the choir. Half baked ideas with zero outcome.
Peace and love,
Tatton x
You don't gotta go to work
Work, work, work, work, work, work
But you gotta put in work
Work, work, work, work, work, workFifth Harmony
Doomed youth
My first paid job was in the summer of 1996, I was 16 at the time and I was looking after the goldfish and the garden of someone on my road. It didn’t go particularly well, but I learnt quite a lot about having to get up and go to work.
I then got a job in Argos at Christmas time 1997 and 1998. I was there for a little longer in 1999. It taught me a lot about professional expectations and working with the public. Following instructions. Not popping out for a cigarette when I was bored (I was bored a lot). Genuinely, a seriously useful experience.
During my time at university I graduated from volunteering to work with children with severe and multiple learning difficulties in Southwark to various paid roles. That was completely transformative. For the first time, I had responsibility and I could think for myself.
In 2003, I started my PGCE, teaching in schools, graduating in 2004 and starting at my first school in July that year.
Those are the jobs I had aged between 16 and 24. They were transformative, they were vital. All of them created a solid base that would allow me to build a career. Sure, I’m not convinced that messing around with Simple Politics for 11 years is quite ‘a career’, but I still use the lessons I learned between 16 and 24.
All of which is to say that I read the latest figures about 16 to 24 year olds not in education, employment or training (Neets) with horror.
It’s not just a question of not contributing to the economy now, but it’s missing out on those formative experiences of work. If you don’t work before you’re 24, your first experience of work comes later - you aren’t ready to start climbing a career ladder. The country misses out on a decade of your input. You miss out on opportunities.
There are 1,012,000 Neets in the UK. That’s up 89,000 this year. When releasing the figures yesterday, the Office for National Statistics said that a lot of that is down to people not looking for work. This did not go down very well in the comments.
Let’s have a look at what might be going on, here…
The oldest of 16-24 year olds were 18 when the pandemic hit. Their final year of school was a mess. There were no hospitality or retail jobs. Where do school leavers often get their first job?
They were stuck at home, most likely with their parents. The structure and ceremony of leaving further education and entering work was destroyed.
The youngest of that cohort were 10. They missed out on the structure and ceremony of leaving Primary school and the first two years of secondary were a mess.
Every single young person aged between 16 and 24 was massively, massively negatively impacted by the lockdown rules. Those lockdown rules are largely there to protect older generations. They were forced into a sacrifice to protect the vulnerable and the elderly.
Are we surprised that this is a generation who struggle with life? They were denied the formative experiences upon which our society is built. We then expect them to fit seamlessly into that society.
If that was a pull factor, there is also a push factor at play. What prospects are there? At what point in life will someone aged 21 today be able to buy their first house? How many of their potential jobs are going to be wiped away by AI? Is it worth going to university if you’re going to be permanently saddled with huge debts?
Oh, also, they’ve suffered the slings and arrows of social media - all their lives. Instagram launched in 2010. Twitter launched in 2006. They’ve never been able to go home and switch off.
People aged 16 - 24 have very different lives to the rest of us. The unspoken promise that the next generation would have a better life has been destroyed.
Is it any wonder there are more disabilities in that generation? That the mental health of that generation is a bin fire?
Getting a job is hard when check out tills are all self service, when fewer people are going out. Paper rounds are almost non-existent. Robots clean the floor in Tesco.
There are those who argue that minimum wage rises and increased National Insurance contributions and boosted workers rights aren’t helping, too.
It’s without doubt that many businesses never recovered from the pandemic and then the 11% inflation rates that Putin created. The current fear of inflation caused by the closure of Hormuz doesn’t help.
This is a generation that has been dealt the hardest of hands. This is a generation who are sick of being told off because they have been dealt the hardest of hands.
Parliament is back! Wooo!
Monday - The Health Bill starts its Parliament journey. It sounds exciting, but is mostly an exercise in bureaucratic tinkering. Getting rid of ‘NHS England’ was announced in March 2025. That’s 14 months ago.
Tuesday - The Armed Forces Bill is in town. It’s a pretty wide ranging bill, it’s the measures about abuse that stand out to me. In 2021, Royal Artillery Gunner Jaysley Beck died by suicide after ‘an intense period of unwelcome behaviour’. She was 19 years old. If this bill can do anything to prevent this happening to anyone else in the future, it will be a triumph. Jaysley’s Law.
Wednesday - PMQs is back! Starmer was on fire in the last one. Badenoch’s contributions have improved so so much. Genuinely looking forward to this one. Then it’s onto nationalising the railways.
Thursday - A General Debate on Pride month.
My good friend Tiernan host the podcast this week, as Diane was away doing half term.
As ever when it’s him and me, the energy is a little different. Do check it out.
Be well x