Youth is wasted on the young
… was a quip from Oscar Wilde. I will resist the cheap gag of saying that youth today just want to be wasted to make another point.
I thought it odd that Nick Clegg was appointing the 59 year old ex-prog rocker Brian Eno as youth advisor but now, as Omar points out, their energetic 27 year old youth spokesperson has been dumped for a 56 year old. The move has been criticised by leading Lib Dem bloggers. All this from a party who had a leadership contest because it was “time to pass on the knife to a younger generation” (Charles Kennedy’s words, not mine). I know politicians are constantly slated for being out of touch but it often seems to be the case that young fogeys are the youthful of UK politics – remember how odd the baseball cap looked on William Hague? On a Newsnight piece on the Pogues’ censorship by the BBC the day Clegg was elected leader, Paxo couldn’t resist slipping in that when Clegg was asked his opinion on it all he said he’d never heard of the song.
December 22, 2007 at 12:46 pm
But Jo never was our Youth spokes – that was Tim Farron. She was women and equalities. I have to say I’m less fussed about Lynne’s appointment than Brian Eno’s. A job as spokesperson is different from that as “advisor” – Lynne is perfectly capable of speaking for and with young people (the idea that only young people can communicate with young people is a modern day fallacy which seems to infect everything from politics to children’s television); it’s the idea that Brian Eno has some kind of special insight into the the mind of young people apparently on the sole basis that he used to be one that is questionable.
Youth is wasted on the youth. I’m more keen to ensure that younger politicians are properly represented on the front bench overall than I am to see them get tokenistic roles such as this.
December 22, 2007 at 4:38 pm
[...] into a frenzy of mock outrage at Jo Swinson being demoted from her post as youth spokesperson. Both Rupa Huq and Omar Salem are working themselves into a lather, with Omar singling out LDYS for failing to [...]
December 22, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Actually, Oscar Wilde quipped something very different.
Wilde contended that the only people who knew anything were the young (the old believe everything, and the middle aged suspect everything). Whether he was being … sarcastic? … Ironic? is anyone’s guess.
Bah, never mind
December 27, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Youth? Wasted? On the young?
You can have mine if you like, I don’t use it anyway.
December 27, 2007 at 7:14 pm
Ok James, Jo Swinson’s exact title might not have been “youff afffairs” but she did cover age discrimination in her brief as seen in her participation on this forum in happier times http://www.headsup.org.uk/content/default.asp?page=s1
December 27, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Her “exact brief”? Why can’t you just accept that you were wrong? And if not, why aren’t you condemning Andrew Stunell’s sacking as youth affrairs spokesperson; after all, he’s listed as a participant of that site as well.