Summertime madness – and I’ve rediscovered AI….

I’ve doctored a real image of me originally taken the night Spurs beat Real Madrid 3-1 at Wembley in 2017. That look of ecstasy was genuine – in all of my time of going to Spurs (40 at the time) we were never supposed to compete with proper teams. It was also coincidentally the exact moment that I started falling out of love with football. We won 3-1 – but it was a game played at Wembley – so instead of staying to celebrate we found ourselves sprinting (as fast as my 50 year old legs at the time could carry me) to the tube station to miss the crowds. Gradually, incrementally and inexorably over the intervening years I’ve become more disillusioned with the prices, the inconvenience, the relentless corporatisation of the game. Helped no doubt that Spurs have been pretty pants for many of the intervening years.

So season tickets relinquished and I’m kicking back and enjoying the summer.

Mind you this was similar to my expression when seeing it finally starting to dawn on Farridge’s face that he is not the electoral success machine he thinks is – nor that this country is necessarily falling for the Reform schtick. Not complacent – they command circa 25% popular support (why wouldn’t they – far right parties across Europe enjoy similar levels) – but they are beatable even within our crazy electoral system. Also no room for complacency when we remember that 15,000 people voted for a Reform candidate in Makerfield who was clearly inept and a self-confirmed sexist.

But they are clearly beatable – having now lost to Labour, Greens, SNP and Lib-Dems respectively in recent by-elections. So even if our main political parties refuse to work together formally – it looks like the electorate are able to do it for them. Who knows perhaps Burnham’s ascendency will put PR back on the agenda and we can start acting like a grown up democracy.

There’s loads of stuff I could say about the demise of Starmer – but others have done it more eloquently. Feels like a short space of time to have turned a giant landslide and a real opportunity for change into becoming an electoral liability. While there are many of his big ethical calls that I profoundly disagreed with – the Labour Party and all the political parties have got to become more adept at combatting the rage fuelled onslaughts from the ‘tech bros’.

If as seems inevitable Andy Burnham becomes PM – which under our parliamentary system is entirely justifiable whatever the cries of ‘no mandate’ – there are some profound issues that we still need the government to focus upon. Not least young people and the rise to more than 1m of them being NEET, the impact of climate change and our general unpreparedness for it (just look at how we’ve ground to a halt this week because it got a bit hot), how to boost the economy and re-build the armed forces given global instability.

Here would be my starter for 10 – I’ve not costed it but am sure it would fit within a fiscal rule if we wanted it to.

Young people are finding it increasingly difficult to find work. Employers are finding it more expensive to employ young people. Meanwhile the Apprenticeship Levy which is in effect an additional tax placed upon employers is estimated to have anywhere between £600m – £1.3bn per year unspent. Public Sector employers ‘allow’ circa £300m in levy charges to lapse.

A progressive intervention would surely to allow employers to spend their Apprenticeship Levy charges on salaries – potentially further enhanced for younger employees with an extThe absurdity of charging employers a levy to then train non-existent workers rather than investing in a youth employment / development scheme is bewildering. In my former life we worked up a sustainable workforce development strategy that (if we’d been allowed to use the Levy sensibly) would have created a meaningful work pathway for 40 young people or longer-term unemployed people per year. Many of those would have finished their salaried apprenticeships and taken up vacant position.

I’m sure there would be some impact upon the business models of training providers – but ‘lapsed’ revenue seems scandalous to me. Especially when one assumes the response to the recent Milburn report on young people is going to demand some kind renewed New Deal for YP.

The refreshed government has an opportunity to rebuild relationships with business / employers and take the next step from lifting children out of poverty into sustainable opportunities for young people.

Workwise we have just completed a fascinating engagement across Cwm Taff Morgannwg around building different, relationship based interventions for those with ‘complex needs’ and have started to work with another local authority on their Homelessness Prevention and Housing Support Programme strategy review. It is striking how real and fresh the impact of Covid-19 still has at a LA level, how fear based decision making processes stifle the workforce and just how much collective will there is to make a difference.

As I start to push 60 (about which I am bound to wax lyrical over the next few months) it is energising just how much (com)passion much of our workforce demonstrates daily and just how big an impact authenticity from the worker has on clients.

We forget that at our peril.