One of the more stupid actions of the incompetent Major government (1992-1997)

Youth unemployment was discussed on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning and it was encouraging to hear that more emphasis is being given to engineering.

One of the more stupid actions of the incompetent Major government (1992-1997) was to allow Polytechnics (and other colleges of Higher Education) to "upgrade" to university status.  The network of polytechnics was originally set up to provide practical courses such as engineering, construction, electrical skills etc.  When they all became universities the leadership of these institutions largely became "academic" and uninterested in vocational courses, which have on the whole been neglected.

Also it was disappointing to hear David Miliband on Newsnight yesterday say that future jobs for young people were going to come from financial services and the City of London - this sort of unbalanced economy has contributed to our current difficulties.

Also I feel I need to keep drawing attention to the fact that we have one million unemployed young people and one million mainly young Polish people in the United Kingdom (having all rushed here over the last five years).  To ignore this obvious correlation is asking for social unrest.  Why is Poland in such an economic mess that its brightest and best young people are literally running away from the place?  Given the filthy squalor that most Poles and Latvians live in when they come to the United Kingdom, what on earth must conditions in Poland be like?  Why is no-one in the British government remonstrating with the Polish authorities and telling them to get their economic act together?  Has the Polish government no shame that economic migration from their country is taking place on such a scale?