Austerity Britain

This recession has seemed to last for a very long time now. The incoming Tory government has to make cuts in each public sector in order to balance the books and get the UK out of the hole that it is in and push the country into the green again. A decade or so under new Labour of excessive borrowing and risk taking by hedge fund managers and large investment banks is well and truly over and new legislation is being brought in, in the US as well as the UK, to curb the powers that the financial sector has on the wider economy.

The problem that arises is that the large corporations and big banks prop up the treasury in the UK and for some reason, the media are often reluctant to identify, it is London that bears the burden of keeping the people of Britain in jobs. Socialism in the UK is difficult to put into practice due to the character of the UK economy in the 21st century. With emerging markets like India and China as well as cheap labour markets to exploit, businesses in the regions struggle to record a profit when times are bad and are the first to enforce redundancies.

London is the engine of the ship, running the entire show and as soon as that engine loses power, the extremities lose the energy to operate as they had done. Under the old Labour government, the public sector would pick up the slack caused by a decline in regional private businesses. However, it drains the economy of the entire country and therefore cannot remain sustainable.

Before these cuts were announced by David Cameron and his Tory pals, areas such as Scotland, the North-East and Northern Ireland had the majority of their work forces in the public sectors. With the downfall of Lehmann brothers in good ol’ Uncle Sam’s backyard, the fall of the pound was inevitable and Labour pushed more money into the economy to bailout these sectors and essentially keep them afloat.

With the revelations that senior figures in the Labour government like Lord Mandelson understood towards the end of 2009 that Labour were not going to come close to winning the General Election held in April, there was spiralling spending in order to give the incoming Tories a headache and a half, forcing them to make further public sector cutbacks, thus struggling to avoid the Greek tragedy.

As London tries to keep its own head above water and regain the economic power it had before the down turn, jobs in the regions are like gold dust. Cuts will be made forcing people into the private sectors and a variety of austerity measures will be implemented.

Young graduates looking for that first break are going to be competing with all of the above. Even graduates with good degrees from top universities won’t be getting any jobs on a decent salary in any of the regions any time soon.

Thanks Gordon...Thanks Tony...Thanks 21st century UK Socialism.

So...have you got a job lined up yet?

Since graduating merely last week the same question keeps on rearing its ugly little head. Repeatedly many of my seniors keep on asking me and my other recent graduates whether or not we have secured work. Permanent, life-changing work that could be the start of long and successful careers. Although I luckily avoided that bullet on receipt of my hearty “well done you are a graduate handshake”, others didn’t prove to be as fortunate.

You could see the question being asked sporadically throughout our graduation ceremony and for each boy or girl their poor faces fell when confronted with the harsh reality put in front of them. There should have been a banner draped across the hall with the words “You are on your own now” emblazoned in red letters across it. As each one smiled politely back and eeked out the familiar words on all recent graduates lips of “No, not yet”, the next step in our lives seemed to be increasingly difficult to take.

All we need now is an index published online with our likelihood of securing employment marked out of one hundred.

The reality of the graduate job market is currently bleak, although the media desperately want to add fuel to the fire. With every article and report pushed at us through television and newspapers, it creates a damaging merry-go round of uncertainty where employers, although perhaps looking to hire, are reluctant to do so because of they feel that others aren’t doing so. Even keen, intelligent and hard working graduates are being overlooked because of the culture of fear that is surging throughout society. Indeed, why hire if you are being told that redundancies are soaring and recent young graduates are not up to scratch?

Although many are looking for jobs straight out of university, there is also a bulk of many young people (my contemporaries) who aren’t keen on thrusting themselves into a profession or workplace that is not really what they want to be doing. There are several other options that people are looking at. Graduates are looking elsewhere and realise that the working life doesn’t have to begin at the tender young ages of 21 or 22 but instead would rather take some time to figure out what their preferred job is before diving head first into interviews.

Why go straight into a career that isn’t necessarily your metier only to change later on the down line or, indeed, never change and wait expectantly for that ever likely mid-life crisis. Each situation isn’t different for every single one of us. People need to understand that pushing graduates into jobs just for the sake of it will not work in the long term.

If I was an employer I would rather some young buck go and find him or herself up a mountain on a skiing season or in South America for a year before applying to work for business. Hiring someone who two months down the line realises that this isn’t the sector for them is not particularly productive on any levels. It is a waste of time and effort to put yourselves out there for brand new graduate Tim for him to turn around and give you the thanks but no thanks.

Stop asking us all if we have a job yet. We are in a recession no-one is hiring and it only compounds the awkward conversation that ensues. If there is a job on the cards, we will let you know pretty soon into any chat, don’t you worry about that.

This generation of graduates needs to crack the code to what we want to do first and then as soon as we have done so, we will happily wax lyrical about it.

And now a message from our sponsors

Graduation for many is meant to be a time for everyone to get together and celebrate the end of three or four years of hard work. It is a time for parents to all get together and share stories about their loved ones and embrace the success of their children. It is up there in our lives (for those who partake in uni) with eighteenth birthday celebrations, marriage and the birth of our first little rugrat.

However...

Due to the "current economic climate" and the manner in which universities across the entire United Kingdom are now run and managed, it seems as though the soul and importance of graduation has been lost on the higher echelons of the establishments management. I use the term "management" because even on a day like my recent graduation ceremony, it seems that the opportunity to upsell the university to parents blinded by pride and emotion had not fallen on deaf ears.

It seems as though proud parents + big wallets = marketing opportunity too good to miss out on. I did an arts degree and it was clear to me that kind of algebra was tattooed across the congregation hall.

Now I understand that universities are in a position with unbelievable amounts of financial strain put on them by the government but why go head first at student's graduation ceremonies and blindly shake the charity bucket in their faces. We are all well-educated young people and realise what you are doing, there is no need.

At our recent graduation ceremony, there was a sense of achievement and raptuous appreciation for all the other students on our course who we have sat next to, copied notes off and fretted over deadlines and dissertations for the past three years. It was to be a day of gratitude and fun. It was until the dreaded sales pitch.

The pro-vice chancellor stood tall in front of two hundred recent history graduates and promptly read from the autocue that was pushed out in front of him, like the budget report. Unwaivering he promptly sold Newcastle to us. I say "us" our parents, siblings and family friends who may well no someone who is considering which university to choose. It was a poor man's Glengarry Glen Ross.

10% off a Master's Degree if we chose to do it at Newcastle. The job market is difficult at the moment for us but luckily Newcastle will be there to support us if we join the alumni association for a nominal fee. There are many improvements and announced new buildings for just after we have left - great that'll be useful.

Then the denouement of the piece: we (two hundred odd history graduates and our parents) were told that Newcastle was in the top ten for medicine, architecture and law in the country.

This chap had not read the script. He had misjudged the crowd worse than Tony Hayward speaking at the annual crayfish convention in Louisiana.

Come on people let's put the commission fee aside for a day, wheel away the merchandise table. We are twenty-two year olds, no-one in their right mind is going to buy a baby grow with Newcastle University emblazoned across it.

These are university lecturers, put some thought into it and go for subliminal messaging or something. You have already told us how much cash you have parted with in developing the science departments. Put it into practice.