How far would you go for a job?

Life for graduates from middle class backgrounds and below from the previous two generations under the then Conservative government and now Labour, who deserted their leftist pretensions when Tony “moron” Blair came to power in 1997, have been dealt a raw deal. Under Lord Tebbitt a “Yuppie” culture ensued, negating the chances of graduates finding decent jobs. The same can be said of today’s government, the government that preached “education”, “education”, and “education”, then went and stabbed us in the back and slapped a three thousand pound price tag for a degree, which in today’s current climate is about as useful as toilet paper as employers are demanding experience, ironic as they won’t bother giving it, leaving graduates to ponder life on draconian dole money, which have their own stringent measures attached to it, but I digress.

The case in question is of one Tom Gockelen-Kozlowski, a recent graduate from Sussex University, twenty two years old, a very talented writer who has confessed to “two-week work experience stint on the Guardian’s fashion desk, four months unpaid for an internet TV station and been writing for everyone from Music-News.com and the NUS website to the MK Dons Forum”. One must ask how much more experience does a guy need? But Tom has taken the initiative and what may be considered tongue-in- cheek, offered business cards providing his personal details and credentials to top broadsheets like “the Guardian” and the “The Observer”.

It’s a crying shame he is “Eking out a living from dole money and savings”, savings which he states that are from his overdraft, through no fault of his own, but the government, that has betrayed our generation. Betrayed how you might ask? Not only did they charge Tom for his education, a privilege his parents I’m sure glad they never had, but they ran our economy into the ground forcing prospective employers to make cutbacks and this has hit the publishing world especially hard, rendering broadsheets inept at even taking aboard interns, I should know, I’m one of them.

Tom describes this as a “last chance saloon” but I doubt it will be. The country will drag itself out of the recession and I’m pretty sure Tom will manage to work his way up the publishing world, talented writers are like rare diamonds, there’s few of us about, I apologise if I’m tooting my own horn here but I’m looking for some work too, so don’t be too harsh with the old boy!

However such are the measures that Tom’s applying to find employment, the words desperate and desolate can’t be used enough to describe the circumstance; I wonder how under the incumbent Conservative government the next generation of graduates will fair. If the previous two governments are anything to go by, I’d say you’re going to be led down the depths of hell and left to rot until it freezes over, which may bring and to all the respite, but these are the views of pessimist, I’ll leave you to decide your own fates.