{"id":13539,"date":"2017-09-26T10:25:57","date_gmt":"2017-09-26T09:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=13539"},"modified":"2017-10-02T15:59:17","modified_gmt":"2017-10-02T14:59:17","slug":"we-must-keep-the-momentum-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=13539","title":{"rendered":"We voted in droves for hope"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Leigh Drennan is chair of Unite’s North West Young Members Committee and Vice Chair of Young Labour nationally. He believes the reason young people, who had become disengaged with politics, were suddenly inspired to get out and use their vote in this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s snap general election, is down something that has been missing from politics and society since the Tories got into power \u00e2\u20ac\u201c hope.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bDuring the snap general election young people voted in droves for Jeremy Corbyn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour Party and\u00c2\u00a0 Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s transformational manifesto.\u00c2\u00a0 And we voted in droves for hope,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis Tory government attempts to pit people against each other \u00e2\u20ac\u201c public sector against the private sector.\u00c2\u00a0 They even want to sow division between the young against the old.\u00c2\u00a0 But young people showed in the huge turnout that we reject these divisions,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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Drennan pointed out that the election lay to waste the myth that young people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t vote.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe do and we did because we can see quite clearly that the blame for these divisions\u00c2\u00a0lie firmly and squarely on a government, that has imposed an ideological political choice of austerity,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

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Young people have been left to shoulder a lifetime burden of debt from tuition fees made worse by the Tories spiteful abolition of the youth maintenance grant.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe Tories claim they have the highest number of people in work than ever but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the work of\u00c2\u00a0zero hour contracts where people get to know whether they are working that day \u00e2\u20ac\u201c\u00c2\u00a0or even the next few hours \u00e2\u20ac\u201c from text messages,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Drennan.<\/p>\n

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We now have the gig economy, a trendy technological word to cover exploitation, where workers are not even called employees.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese claims of higher than ever employment figures are bogus. They are a fraud perpetrated on all of us,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWell we say that young people deserve security of employment as much as anyone else and they deserve equal rights whether they are working full or part time.\u00c2\u00a0We have the same bills and deserve a proper living wage,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

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When the pundits and the pollsters ask why young people voted in droves for Jeremy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour Party \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this is why.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAt a pre-conference rally on the Level with a turn out in the thousands Jeremy reaffirmed the manifesto commitment to abolish tuition fees and music to our ears he reaffirmed bringing back the maintenance grant,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Drennan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Along with bosses that seek to exploit its workers there are landlords who are charging enormous rents following a massive transfer from council provision to private landlords.<\/p>\n

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When housing isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t judged on need but on profit a future Labour government has the answer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they will build a million new houses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs if young people haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been hammered enough\u00c2\u00a0youth services are under constant attack.\u00c2\u00a0The figures are shocking 600 youth centers have been shut and over 3,000 youth workers have lost their jobs,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Drennan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bConservatives cynically calculate that young people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t vote for them so they have cut and cut again,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Government figures show that local authority spending on youth services has fallen by more than a half from \u00c2\u01411.2bn in 2010 to\u00c2\u00a0just \u00c2\u0141500m.<\/p>\n

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Youth services and the youth profession in England are fighting for their very survival.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMy union, Unite, has set out a road map for what the government could do framed around three priorities; the creation of a universal youth service protected in statute, the introduction of a legally protected title for youth workers and a national register so youth workers are given the\u00c2\u00a0same\u00c2\u00a0status as other sections of the children and young people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s workforce and the reversal of cuts,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Drennan.<\/p>\n

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Youth work as a profession has lost the status it had.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is why we strongly support the Joint Negotiating Committee for Youth and Community Workers as the quality benchmark to maintain the pay and employment conditions, status and professionalism of youth workers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 During the snap election young people hit the streets, knocked on doors and\u00c2\u00a0took to the phones.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur vote went up and we took seats from the Conservatives.\u00c2\u00a0Theresa May lost the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s majority and, she lost all her authority, but we must keep the momentum going,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Drennan.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe are in permanent campaign mode, because we know that for young people\u00c2\u00a0to get the hope they voted for in droves we need a Labour government with a manifesto that restores trust, and gives young people a future they can believe in,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leigh Drennan is chair of Unite’s North West Young Members Committee and Vice Chair of Young Labour nationally. He believes the reason young people, who had become disengaged with politics, were suddenly inspired to get out and use their vote in this year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s snap general election, is down something that has been missing from politics […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2979,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,727,613,131,360,713,807,561,444,71,241,389],"wps_subtitle":"Labour gives youth a future they can believe in","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13539"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13644,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13539\/revisions\/13644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}