Opinion: Howard Williamson - A missed opportunity for a mature debate

There are, of course, concerns: the card has been described as the necessary gimmick required in all new political initiatives, and other commentators have expressed surprise at the commitment being made to it given the limited success of its immediate predecessor, the Connexions Card. Others are more ideologically opposed to a strategy that appears to smack of the marketisation of youth services through the exercise of consumer choice.

This leads on to the old debate about the balance to be struck between the needs and wants of young people.

Yet Beverley Hughes did emphasise that the opportunity cards were not cast in stone and would be carefully piloted in order to evaluate their place in youth provision and impact on young people. Perhaps, in her speech, she dwelt for too long on the cards at the expense of other aspects of the green paper.