As we celebrate the 80th anniversary this week of Victory in Europe in May 1945, it is worth reflecting not just on the sacrifice, but on the courage, commitment and resilience of those who made it possible.
People, young and old, whether in the Armed Services or the factories and farms at home, gave their all.
There were grumbles, there were even strikes (which are now little remembered) and there was overwhelming tiredness.
Yet, in the face of danger over a prolonged six-year period, that generation won through.
Even then, amid the ruins and continuing privations – rationing only ended in July 1954 – they regrouped and set about the monumental task of rebuilding our nation. Could we show such stoicism and dogged determination today? The same resilience?
I ask because I am concerned at what is around me, in particular when it comes to the young people upon whom the future of our society depends.
About 20 per cent of school-age children do not turn up to school regularly. Almost one million 16 to 24-year-olds are not in education, employment or training.
Diagnoses for mental ill-health are soaring among the young.
I am concerned at what is around me, in particular when it comes to the young people upon whom the future of our society depends, writes former Home Secretary Lord Blunkett
Pictured: A large crowd after listening to Winston Churchill’s speech, congregate in Whitehall to celebrate VE Day in London on May 8, 1945
Pictured: Prime Minister Winston Churchill is mobbed by crowds as he made his triumphant ride to the Houses of Parliament after his victory speech was relayed to the thousands in Whitehall on VE Day
Too many are gripped by a corrosive culture of inactivity. This is not to blame our young adults.
While life was hard for millions in the post-war years, there were advantages to living in those times, and particularly for the young. Optimism was widespread. The future seemed clear.
Following the disastrous joblessness of the 1930s, there was a commitment to full employment.
It was understood by all that the most crucial element of a successful life was to have and hold down a job.
Eighty years ago, a medical condition was either something so debilitating that you literally couldn’t work or was likely to be fatal. Today’s mass diagnoses were unimaginable.
Even until recently, part-time and Saturday jobs were the norm for young people. My son Hugh was a paperboy.
Teenagers went potato-picking. They worked in shops and launderettes at the weekend. It’s much less common now.
Even if living standards are immeasurably higher than in 1945 – perhaps because of it – young people seem to lack the confidence or hope enjoyed by former generations.
Even until recently, part-time and Saturday jobs were the norm for young people. Teenagers went potato-picking (above), they worked in shops and launderettes at the weekend. It’s much less common now, writes Lord Blunkett
Lord Blunkett (above) says his son, Hugh, worked as a paperboy
Sky-high expectations, an economy that has stubbornly refused to grow and a glut of addictive online entertainment have done nothing to help. I am deeply alarmed by all this. It is dangerous to have so many young adults so completely disengaged – and we need to tackle it.
We must reflect how best to put structure back into their lives, how to restore the spirit of the 1940s to the DNA of the nation.
One answer is a form of national service – although not the 1950s version promoted by Rishi Sunak almost one year ago.
To say his proposal for compulsory military service went down like a lead balloon would be a gross understatement.
Ill-thought-through, uncosted and unclear, in my view this intervention queered the pitch for a sensible debate about where we stand today.
So, why would I want to return to such politically tricky territory? Because I believe in a very different, more constructive version of national service. I’m talking here about nine months of serving the community – plus a living wage to go with it.
I mean a properly considered, well-organised programme of work and training, designed to build confidence, self-esteem and self-reliance.
It would support schools and colleges and help deliver social services. It would benefit the environment, too.
One answer is a form of national service – although not the 1950s version promoted by Rishi Sunak almost one year ago, writes Lord Blunkett
I first floated this idea 30 years ago, when the then-leader of the Labour Party, John Smith, set up a Commission on Social Justice.
It led us to think about how we’d tackle the challenge of those young people who were out of work were we to win the General Election in 1997.
And it resulted in the establishment of the New Deal for the young unemployed. With substantial backing from employers, by the end of our first parliament in 2001, 250,000 young people found themselves in a job, full-time education, training or a placement in a voluntary or community setting.
It’s an approach that works, and the scheme has taken on various iterations among successive governments since.
In the United States, at a similar juncture, the then-President Bill Clinton was establishing AmeriCorps, an opportunity for hundreds of thousands of youngsters to engage with full-time community work.
It was structured on a voluntary basis but, again, with the backing of the federal government and also major employers. Today, our need is greater than ever which is why, together with the former Chair of the National Citizen Service, Stephen Greene CBE, I’ve been involved in a pilot programme with 400 youngsters.
They have undertaken nine months of social engagement with in-work training and were paid according to the national living wage, now £12.21 an hour.
Many of them had been out of work for a long period or had already tried temporary and short-term schemes elsewhere.
I first floated this idea 30 years ago, when the then-leader of the Labour Party, John Smith (above) set up a Commission on Social Justice, writes Lord Blunkett
In the United States, then-President Bill Clinton (above) was establishing AmeriCorps, an opportunity for hundreds of thousands of youngsters to engage with full-time community work
Yet a staggering 86 per cent of the youngsters we recruited went on to work or full-time further and higher education, a figure way beyond any similar programme.
It has given them a reason to get up in the morning and enthused them with the work ethic.
Scaled up, this surely must be worthy of consideration at a time when so many among the working age population are economically inactive – with all the drain on our economy, social fabric and government income that entails.
The programme I’m proposing would complement the Government’s Youth Guarantee for apprenticeship and training for 18-21-year-olds.
Now more than ever, we need a dramatic shift in perception about what is possible as we start moving people from welfare to work.
Yes, the cost would be significant, but the cost of doing nothing would be greater still, not least in unemployment benefits.
It is essential that we end the scandal of so many idle hands – and the terrible culture of worklessness that goes with it.
One striking achievement of the newly elected government in 1945 – and this is too often forgotten – was the way in which Britain managed to demob four-and-a-half million men and women from the wartime endeavour and back into civilian life.
What an undertaking!
That scale of ambition, that dramatic determination to wave away the sceptics and the naysayers, should be an example to all of us 80 years on.
