Lynn Dye

Downtrodden Youth

by Lynn Dye

Thursday 16th August 2012 11:13 am (first posted Wednesday 15th August 2012 10:58 pm)

24.6.2012

not yet twenty, out of work

forty applications last month,

only heard back from one,

to say sorry, but someone

of experience has been chosen.

desperately he wonders

how he is to gain experience,

no money for university,

no great grades if there was,

due to unhappy childhood

looking after a mother on drugs.

at the local newsagents

Daily Mail heading offends:

‘Cameron to axe housing benefits

for feckless under twenty-fives…’

in spite of himself, eyes scan page;

apparently, youngsters

are to move back in with parents.

well, he never knew his father,

and he has no wish to move into

his mother’s stony grave.

feckless… well, there was no way

he would succumb to drugs

or the bottle, far from it!

just enough coins in his pocket

left from the dole to buy beans

hoping the toaster works tonight.

young mother, two small children,

sees what he’s reading, says,

“crazy, innit? my husband works

a 44 hour week for peanuts,

all he could get after redundancy,

it’s not enough – we’re both 23 –

been married four years!

what’s this guy trying to do?

break up families?”

before he can answer,

she runs after her toddler.

“are you going to buy that paper?”

unnecessarily stern voice.

“no way,” he says, dropping

biased print back to shelf

to leave shop in a hurry,

just catching words on the way.

“youth of today, they think

the world owes them a living.”

he does not, neither did he ask

to be born into poverty.

◄ Abandonment

Supercar ►

Comments

tony sheridan

Thu 27th Sep 2012 16:19

Catch 22? I like this very much. Take care, Tony.

<Deleted User> (6895)

Sat 18th Aug 2012 21:01

Baba O Riley?
any relation to old Mother Riley
(the wife beater in real life)
yes indeed the 'ew did some great stuff.

my fave to air guitar to
is 'wont get fooled again'

to which Trish accompanies me on the washboard.;O)xx

Lynn Dye

Sat 18th Aug 2012 13:30

I like that one! :-)
Certainly true of all our current political parties, anyway.
My only answer would be to change our monetary system. I saw this week that the IMF are in agreement with this also.

M.C. Newberry

Sat 18th Aug 2012 12:57

Maybe the "right" falls into the trap of being
right in its own mind - whereas...
the "left" find themselves left in two minds,
neither of which can make a decision than benefits the rest of us!
:-)

Lynn Dye

Sat 18th Aug 2012 12:41

In answer to your question, no, it is not necessarily right wing in its tackling of violence, drug abuse and neglect of duty.

But to try and pretend there is enough work out there to employ everyone, whether young or middle aged, which is a complete myth, then yes, that is what I call right wing, living in their own little world mentality.

M.C. Newberry

Sat 18th Aug 2012 12:32

Is it "right wing" to take a hard line with
violence, drug abuse, neglect of duty and a
tendency to feed off others instead of self-reliance and an absence of self-pity?
Then, arguably, many fall into that category
and the press reflect that - with the emphasis of exaggeration to "sell copy". Surely, that
much is understood, with the enjoyment of
beliefs being stroked at the same time in a world that often appears to have lost its collective mind.

Lynn Dye

Sat 18th Aug 2012 12:16

I only find papers like the Independent to be unbiased, MC.
The Daily Mirror is the only paper which appears to be left wing.
I don't think you can argue that papers like the Daily Mail or the Sun are anything but right wing.
This poem is about the Daily Mail, the same rag my friend mentioned.

So in two thousand years we have learnt nothing.

M.C. Newberry

Sat 18th Aug 2012 12:11

Take note Lynn - two thousand years ago, the Greeks
were lambasting the youth of their day! Little changes.
I am intrigued by the frequent use on WOL of the term "right wing press", but rarely, if ever, any reference to the opposite. This seems to indicate an existing prejudice when expressing a view on emotive social subjects.

Lynn Dye

Sat 18th Aug 2012 10:33

Thank you for your kind comment, Yvonne, and the further point you make.
Re the "feckless", I think if most of us stop and think of all the young we know, there are very few that deserve to be described thus. A friend of mine used to be a newsagent when the right wing press were rubbishing all students, and he often found himself talking to right press customers who were spouting all they had read, reminding them of all the students they knew in their village, including the ones that worked for him, and finally they would have to agree that they didn't actually know anyone who fitted this description.
I have come to the conclusion that papers like the Sun and the Mail should be renamed the Daily Poison and the Daily Vitriol.

Yvonne Brunton

Fri 17th Aug 2012 19:29

This is good the way you remind us of the other side of the coin - not all youth are 'feckless' ( cue comments about our young olympic heros)
I'll second you on your statement about more unemployed than jobs too, Lynn. From very recent personal experience trying to get agency work - the same job is advertised by many different agencies making it appear that there are loads of jobs out there when it is just not true and although the jobcentre says this is illegel it goes on and on and advisors at the job centres don't warn you of this they just click on these job ads and say (literally) there are hundreds of jobs in your field!
Well done on your poem I like it and the issues raised are important.

Jeff Dawson

Fri 17th Aug 2012 14:01

You're welcome Lynn, and you've got a further good point here! Thanx for comment on my latest Get a Life poem glad u like it! x

Lynn Dye

Thu 16th Aug 2012 22:38

Thank you Jeff, appreciate your kind comments.

What I find unacceptable is that the world's economic crisis is down to unregulated private banks creating money as debt, quite apart from their huge risk taking, as the tax payer ends up paying the bills. But as the banks hold too much power, the government picks on the vulnerable who cannot fight back.

MC, I take your point about open borders, but we are part of the EU so no easy answer there either.

Jeff Dawson

Thu 16th Aug 2012 21:13

Good stuff Lynn, like the way you've written this and like you can't see things getting much better, and as you say certainly no easy answer!

I work in benefits so have a good idea of whats going on across the board in all areas really. Its a juggling game and you cant please everyone. But in my opinion the current Govt, while having to save money are getting carried away with it. As usual working age people don't fare well. I can understand MC's point but think they are the minority.

Back to the poem, you've put yourself well in the young mans position, and very objectively, not biased, can feel the 'this is all i need to read but will' feeling, and its probably the last thing he would spend money he hasnt got on, nice one Jeff X

M.C. Newberry

Thu 16th Aug 2012 20:58

Then there is the great "unmentionable" of the millions from beyond these shores who have arrived here in the last couple of decades. What of them and THEIR many offspring when it comes to jobs? There are only a given number who bring enough money to live on & create work..the rest face the same task: waiting on others to "make" jobs to fill. Also - the emphasis on "uni" whilst ignoring society's need of essential trades & skills is another problem for a society that is now drowning in sheer numbers. There is no easy answer, as the situation elsewhere indicates, but I feel we have made a rod for our own backs when kids think they are managerial material by right! Meanwhile, we have to pay the bill while they realise the real world beyond the addled version of their inadequate parent(s) doesn't actually work (the operative word!) that way. No national borders is a dream of an idea but it comes at a cost that no one seems to have dared address in my lifetime and it now appears to be a one-way nightmare!

Lynn Dye

Thu 16th Aug 2012 14:19

Hi MC, of course there are some youngsters that don't want to get out of bed early and find work. I'm not disputing that, which is why I tried this write in story form to show that there is another side of the coin.

The lad with a childhood unable to study after looking after a mother on drugs. And even those that ARE working will be affected if they are on national minimum wage with a family to support. (I myself had been married 6 years by the age of 25 and hubby is the same age.)

We should not tar all our youth with the same brush. I found that particular report from the Mail as disgraceful and told them so as well in no uncertain terms!! It implied that Cameron himself had used the word "feckless" but I knew it was just their bias.

The fact is that the unemployed far outnumbers the vacancies for jobs, so at some point I think our nation needs to wake up and realise that there will never be enough jobs for the amount of people, and restructure our industries' working hours accordingly. I am not suggesting it would be an easy matter of course in the face of our economy but something should be happening at some stage before we have a whole generation of wasted youth.

There are no GOOD jobs in this area, (South East) but that's not to say there are none. (Low wage and non jobs, and vacancies you go after that actually tell you the position is for self employed, working only on commission of sales, i.e. no wage!)

I wonder how our families would be surviving in the north of England though?

Lynn Dye

Thu 16th Aug 2012 14:00

Thank you for your comments, Stef. I love that song, it is a line from "Baba O' Riley. I would ask if this female blonde lodger has an age limit under different circumstances!! Ha ha.

Thank you so much, Laura, I'm glad you like it :)

M.C. Newberry

Thu 16th Aug 2012 13:20

There is always a "plus" side.
My origins are in the south west of England - an area which, except for "tourism" -in decline since the time that "working class" families decided to head for the sun - and farming, has been an employment "blackspot". Yet none of my siblings' kids have failed to find work. An attitude that is willing to try anything and show flexibility helps! Sadly, too many have been encouraged to a "deserve it all - and now" mentality that is the sure path to disillusion and the creation of false hope BEYOND ABILITY OR APTITUDE. And how can those who
cannot see beyond the end of their beds be relied on
to create the work opportunities of the future?
How many of today's "benefits" youth would be ready and willing to get out of those beds at 5am for any job, especially one they think is somehow "beneath" them or which doesn't "pay enough"? I would like to be
impressed but......

Laura Taylor

Thu 16th Aug 2012 09:15

There's some good phrases in this Lynn, and as you might suspect, I back your sentiments wholeheartedly ;)

'biased print' - love that

<Deleted User> (6895)

Wed 15th Aug 2012 23:56

That song by the Who comes to mind here Lynn-
the one with the title or line(cant remember which..'Teenage wasteland'

And that is the way you have described becoming in this very well written poem.

Did you hear about the goverments intention
for certain council house tenants
to be obliged into taking a lodger on?

Trust me to be a house owner!
I would have been all too willing to do that-
as long as the lodger was female,blonde
and was into baldy old men,the kind of baldy men that would have been into her...woo-ooh!!xx

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