Wiltshire's youth policy drawn up on the back of a fag packet

HOW’S this for political opportunism?
Imagine you’re Trowbridge Tory Laura Mayes. Not easy, in my case, I admit.
Imagine you’ve been insisting there’s no more money for the youth service, only for your party to realise belatedly what a disaster this is turning out to be in both PR and practical terms.
It must seem like a blessed miracle when an extra £300,000 is suddenly fished out from down the back of a sofa to get you out of trouble.
Headline-wise, you don’t have to look like such a bunch of meanies after all.
Of course, trumpeting this convenient windfall is not to be construed as an acknowledgement that you might have got your initial calculations a teensy bit wrong.
And there’s no need to mention that chunks of it were raised by ‘the kids’ themselves through their youth club fees and fundraising events.
In other words, that they were helping to pay for their own fun before you stopped all that. That morally speaking, it’s their money already.
And there’s certainly no need to highlight that it won’t be spread about evenly across the county.
Or that there’ll be no more top-ups next year.
It’s just, well ………. jolly handy, and let’s all stop carping and be glad about something for once.
Onward and upward to a glorious, ‘community-led’ future.
Meanwhile, who’s left to pick up the pieces and provide constructive outlets for young people’s energies after this latest example of ‘robustly scrutinised’ back-of-a-fag-packet policy making?
Why, the bemused members of our area boards, who had no idea they were joining the salvage industry when they stood for election, aided by the few remaining Wiltshire Council professionals who have a clue about what proper youth work actually requires.
And that’s a bit more than a game of table football in the parish hall.
Last night Salisbury’s board members were meeting privately to discuss how they will cope with this unlooked-for responsibility.
I don’t envy them. Meaning no disrespect, most of them would probably admit to a pretty hazy grasp of current youth culture.
They’re not trained for the job of organising activities for teenagers, especially the stroppy ones most in need of help.
They’ll need to ensure that the volunteers who run them on a day-to-day basis are suitable.
And they can’t afford to pay someone to take the burden from their shoulders.
But they’re all we’ve got. I really do wish them the best of luck.