It is, apparently, the first time that, if there is a job available, young people will be compelled to take it up or have their benefits cut. In previous recessions, Brown argued, young people were written off and this is a "mistake this government will not repeat".
Does he not remember the New Deal for Young People - financed by a windfall tax on the privatised utilities - of which he was the architect? Does he not recall asserting, alongside a certain Tony Blair, that there would be no "fifth option" of unemployment for those aged 18 to 24 who had been on Jobseekers' Allowance for more than six months?
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