O nce upon a time, elections used to be all about kissing babies. But for parents of teenagers, this one has felt more like a smack in the teeth. Last weekend, our children were threatened with compulsory national service, for no obvious reason beyond keeping nostalgic pensioners happy.
Now, just in the middle of their GCSE revision, Rishi Sunak is threatening to scrap one in eight degree places. “You don’t have to go to university to succeed in life,” tweeted the prime minister , who to be fair is currently proving that you can go to lots of universities – he has a degree from Oxford and a master’s from Stanford – and still see your career end in failure. The money saved by slashing 130,000 supposedly “Mickey Mouse” places would, he promised, fund 100,000 apprenticeships .
Though given the enduring failure to get these off the ground over the past decade, it would be unwise to bin the Ucas form just yet. Meanwhile, the education secretary, Gillian Keegan, called the apprenticeship she did at 16 her “ golden ticket ” but failed to mention her subsequent degree in business studies, followed by a master’s. Doubtless all this tests well with the roughly one in 10 voters threatening to back Reform, around whom this defensive Conservative campaign now revolves: mostly older non-graduates inclined to see students as woke layabouts.
It’s wrong to stereotype all baby boomers as selfish, when so many people care deeply about their own grandchildren and other pe.
