By Tim Murgatroyd

Is it just me who feels the young are unfairly neglected these days? I know such a statement may seem far-fetched to many people.

Neglected? Pull the other designer label or latest gadget. The current generation have never had it so good. Personal freedoms abound. They are soft as snowflakes. Never have so many been allowed to bite the bright, sustaining apple of a university education. And what about the digital revolution that seems part of modern youth’s birthright? The constantly evolving forms of entertainment and communication available are staggering.

Such people certainly have a point. Like all of us in the Western world, the young are intensely privileged.

But as so often in pre-Brexit Britain, the truth is a shade or two more complicated. One of Shakespeare’s favourite themes is the battle between appearance and reality. I suspect he would have felt at home when it comes to the position of the young in the UK today.

First off, that question of education. According to the fact-checking charity, Full Fact, 31 per cent of 18 year olds accepted a place at university in 2015.

Lucky blighters (for want of a stronger word), you might say. Except then you realise that the average student debt when young people finish their course is over £50,000. And let’s remind ourselves the government has just privatised the student loan company. I genuinely hope that measure won’t lead to a steep rise in visits by the bailiffs in York over coming years. Being a realist, I have my doubts.

York Press:

York St John students celebrate before their graduation in 2015. But with or without a degree, life is tough for young people today

So what, some would counter, the young can always work off their debts.

Now when I entered the labour market 30 years ago most of us could anticipate a career cushioned by clearly defined hours, paid holidays, sick pay and steadily rising incomes. Even the self-employed were protected by the safety net of the welfare state. Back then strong workplace unions weren’t as rare as the dodo and offered protection against unfair dismissal or shoddy treatment from employers.

Best of all, we weren’t expected to work until we dropped. Pension schemes were generous and offered decency in old age. That’s why pensioners are now £20 a week better off than working households according to research by the Resolution Foundation.

Think about that. Pensioners are far better off than young people in work and trying to start a family.

Can we really say the majority of our young people in York have been given access to acceptable employment rights?

Zero hour contracts, endemic low pay, insecurity in the workplace and the gig economy are the norm for all too many of our young people.

In fact, according to a recent parliamentary report, nearly one in five young people in Yorkshire and the Humber are NEETs: not in employment, education or training. You could call that the makings of a lost generation.

Ah well, some will reply, things could be better but at least an Englishman’s home is still his castle.

Except, of course, if you happen to be young and don’t have a well-off family or inherited wealth to hoist you onto the housing ladder.

The truth is that millions of young people have little prospect of buying or renting an affordable home. Many find it hard to scrape together a deposit or month’s rent in advance.

House prices in our city far outstrip average earnings for young people. And in the real world there is a diminishing supply of affordable social housing in York provided by either the council or housing associations.

I’d like to demolish one myth here and now. That situation is NOT blameable on immigrants. It is because we have not invested in social housing. It is because the right to buy has taken too many of our publicly funded dwellings out of circulation. Now our children must pay an exorbitant price for a roof over their heads.

So I really do feel the young are unfairly neglected these days.

Yet they are our country’s future. We are all passing through this world and hope our children will live better lives than we did. Maybe it’s time to put their interests first.