My questions will be unpopular! But they are questions, not opinions – I do not have the facts! Firstly why has this beome a major issue recently? Has the funding for it changed? Secondly according to to the Guardian 26 of 32 councils with large deficits are in wealthy areas. I am aware that parents are desperate to help their children whatever, atomy secondary school in an affluent’ish area nearly 50% of parents applied for extra time for their children in their GCSE’s. So have parents got better at the appeals process? Is there some malaise affecting our children (possible culprit is social media). Or is it poor parenting – and here I am not pointing a finger with malice, the coast of living, especially housing means many more households with children have both parents working full time. Or has society changed for the worse? In my humble opinion it has become a lot more selfish and isolated. People like Farage and the gutter press preach animosity towards others whether it is minority groups like migrants, or blacks, or Muslims, or Jews, or unemployed, or disabled, or even people who have had the temerity to rise above their appointed (by birth) station in life like Markel and the Beckhams or Angela Rayner.
So forget Peter fucking Mandleson and have a public inquiry into what is happening to our youth – the establishment might not like the outcome!. Libraries and youth clubs closed, doctors appointments (hahaha), petty crime ignored (no so petty to the victims), racism, misogyny and homophobia on the rise. Climate change. Moneyitisation of most sporting facilities – or closure in the case of swimming pools. University ‘loans’.
We should not be pandering to old folk like me, but investing in our children and a brighter more vibrant community for them to grow into and be a part of.