Stereotpyes

'Stereotpyes - there must be more to life...'

A life philosophy according to Blur. What a load of rubbish. Stereotpyes don't really exist nowadays - apart from in old-fashioned, pre-political correctness language textbooks: no-one really believes that stereotypes are any use these days, let alone the backbone to our society.

Blur, and I suggest you have a listen to the song because it's really rather good, are suggesting that lives revolve around stereotypes and conforming to expectations: if someone expects me to under-perform, then I'm not going to disappoint anyone if I do.

Oh dear. That sounds quite familiar.

So we may not be looking at the French expecting them realistically to be wearing berets and stripey tshirts with a string of onions round their necks, but if I say I'm 22 and looking for work I can guarantee there are pockets of society that will make certain judgements about what I'll be like.

Let's think through a few of them... I'll be lazy, I'll be on the dole, I'll be applying for one job a month with no real desire to take it, I'll be stupid, I'll be the very last person that the average office Joe wants working with them.

I am none of these things. In fact most unemployed youths tick very few of those criteria. I don't know where the bad press is coming from, but it certainly isn't the majority. Most young jobseekers, whether out of university, or college, or high school, are conscientious and eager to get going in the world of work. After all work means money and money mean being able to buy lots more of those shiny things that seem to attract young people.

So at Christmas they (whoever 'they' are) say 'give peace a chance', some of them even say 'give peas a chance' - but I will say just one thing - 'give youths a chance'.