Wasted

Young people growing up in Britain today face a narrowing job market, high housing costs and the prospect of a lifetime of hard work with less reward. The ideas of social responsibility that arose after the Second World War are straining under the demands of a globalised world. Too often public debate divides Britain's youth into the 'feral rats' of the London riots and the 'posh boys' of Eton.

Business leaders rail at the entitled and unemployable young people they are asked to give jobs to, politicians complain about apathetic teens and commentators devote endless column inches to the issue of a 'self-obsessed' generation. Georgia Gould travelled across the UK to uncover the values, aspirations and challenges of young Brits, from job seekers in Bradford and working-class families in Glasgow's Easterhouse estate, to student protesters at Sussex University and young entrepreneurs in London such as YouTube sensation Jamal Edwards. If we show young people that we trust them with the future of our country, we will find that they are ready to rise to the challenge.

This timely work points the way towards a new social contract and gives a voice to young Britain.

Georgia Gould is a Labour Party councillor for Kentish Town ward in the London Borough of Camden. Elected when she was 24, she has spent the last two years as the borough's Children's Champion, leading projects on youth unemployment, educational attainment and young people's civic engagement. She is also a Trustee of Queen's Crescent Community Association, Chair of Caversham Nursery and a Governor of William Ellis School. Previously she worked as the Digital Manager at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation and as the Labour Party Organiser and agent during the successful 2005 election campaign in Mitcham and Morden. She graduated in 2008 from St Catherine's College Oxford with a History and Politics degree and has a Masters in Global Politics from the London School of Economics.