Advertisement
Opinion

Rachel Reeves’s budget will need to be a feast of financial alchemy

They tell us that if young people would only stop buying matcha they’d all be able to afford the life they want. Will Rachel Reeves deliver a budget that at least allows them to leave the nest?

Jobs, opportunity and the ongoing rise in the cost of living – the holy trinity, the intertwining parts of the big conundrum. If one of them is nudged to move in the right direction it means the others will follow, or they are already going there. But to nudge one in the right direction is to resolve the gordian knot. 

Every week, we’re bombarded by new figures. There are around 1.67 million people currently registered as unemployed. At the same time, according to the ONS, there are 728,000 open vacancies. This is a drop in the last year. As the number of unemployed rises, it neatly illustrates the problem.  

We know the challenges. To secure a new job, particularly if you’re entering the labour market for the first time, as a graduate or school leaver, it’s like a psychological Squid Game. Many try, but most fail. That’s assuming they get past the AI HR gatekeepers. The fear of not encountering human filters is a recurring motif from some.

If that wasn’t enough, there are any number of reports insisting young people are all staying at home longer than the previous generation. They’re sponging. It’s their fault. Mostly because THEY’RE SPENDING TOO MUCH ON FANCY MATCHA! Though, if they were, at least there’d be more jobs in coffee shops. 

Read more:

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is trying to get a hold of the stubborn, embedded unemployment numbers. Last week, work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden announced a “redeployment” of 1,000 specialist Jobcentre staff to help people on long-term sick find “pathways to work”. It’s laudable, but the thorny issue of what work they’re on a pathway to remains.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty
Advertisement

Meanwhile, the government’s decision to increase employers’ national insurance costs is one of the key issues that businesses insist is keeping the jobs market soft. Incidentally, last week as McFadden was rolling the boulder up the hill, he also took to Instagram to wish Bruce Springsteen a happy birthday. Clearly, he was hoping the Boss could help with matters – ahem…  

The other issue with stats and figures is how they land. Legitimate facts compete with numbers plucked from the air. So, if Nigel Farage claims throwing migrants out of Britain by their hundreds of thousands would save the exchequer £234 billion, regardless of that number being widely discredited, the number still takes hold. It heads into the AI ether, to be regurgitated and reused when Russian bot farms want to undermine something in the UK, gaining primacy on social media.

This also serves to make a lot of people feel that their interests are not looked after because some foreigner is being treated better than them. And so the issue of jobs and opportunity is not resolved, but there is more division and much less trust in those in power. Trust in public life has real-world implications. 

How you fix things well enough to kickstart the jobs market is clearly not obvious. Rachel Reeves’s budget is going to have to be a feast of financial alchemy. I really hope she can deliver. So much is riding on her decisions in November, not least for those matcha-loving young homebirds.  

To deal with trust in the public sphere, there might be a straightforward way. Perhaps a start would be avoiding the AI amalgamation that makes no judgement between truth and lies, being simply a dark binary force needing fed. How about a print magazine – print! – that dives deep into the big issues and works to surface truth AND better life opportunities for those who sell it, or who intersect with the services it delivers in the background.

That magazine also happens to have a very trustworthy online news service, fighting for those for whom the system frequently forgets or spits out. 

Paul McNamee is editor of the Big Issue.Read more of his columns here. Follow him on X.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more

Reader-funded since 1991 – Big Issue brings you trustworthy journalism that drives real change.

Every day, our journalists dig deeper, speaking up for those society overlooks.

Could you help us keep doing this vital work? Support our journalism from £5 a month.

Advertising helps fund Big Issue’s mission to end poverty

READER-SUPPORTED SINCE 1991

Reader-supported journalism that doesn’t just report problems, it helps solve them.

Recommended for you

Read All
Supermarket dominance is disastrous for food prices, public health and the planet
supermarket aisle
Carina Millstone

Supermarket dominance is disastrous for food prices, public health and the planet

Universal credit is back in the dock – this time at the United Nations
Delegates from around the world at the United Nations.
Rick Burgess and Alex Firth

Universal credit is back in the dock – this time at the United Nations

Housing refugees properly benefits everyone in society – here's how
a tent on the street
Lauren Aronin

Housing refugees properly benefits everyone in society – here's how

How has Taylor Swift been able to stay in the spotlight for so long?
Taylor Swift performing at the Eras Tour.
Kate Pattison

How has Taylor Swift been able to stay in the spotlight for so long?

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payments: Where to get help in 2025 now the scheme is over

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue
4.

Citroën Ami: the tiny electric vehicle driving change with The Big Issue