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The Budget

We have made great progress over the past year in putting 450 young people back to work in the Vale of Clwyd. That finishes today. Job opportunities available yesterday will not be available tomorrow. All that will be available tomorrow is the dole, a lack of dignity, and lowered morale and confidence. They—and probably their children, if nothing is done—will end up in the new coal and steel towns of the UK. Those coal and steel towns were decimated by the Conservative party in the 1980s. The new communities are going to be public sector towns and seaside towns, because nothing is being done to help those young people. The Government want to replace the future jobs fund at £6,500 per person with skivvy schemes, a return to the youth training schemes and the Manpower Services Commission that we saw in the 1980s. These schemes will not do; the people in seaside towns—including Colwyn Bay—deserve better. We will see decay in those societies, because local communities need jobs, not just for the money, but the feeling of self-worth and community that jobs provide. If nothing specific is done for those communities, we will not have a big society in a better Britain but a beg society in a bitter Britain.