Alan Milburn describes them as a ‘lost generation’. Those I spoke to just want to know what they have to do to finally get a job – and a chance in lifeCallum Atkinson is 23 years old, and lives in the Greater Manchester town of Rochdale. Until very recently, he was one of hundreds of thousands of young people in the UK reckoned not to be in education, employment or training: what officialspeak rather coldly terms a Neet, and therefore part of a huge national problem being investigated by the former New Labour high-up Alan Milburn, whose final report on young people and work is due any day now, and will be a big, hyped-up political event.Milburn – quite rightly – thinks the UK’s estimated 981,000 Neets represent the profound risk of “a lost generation” and a “moral crisis” that is already upon us. If you are interested in matters of finance as well as ethics, you may also be aware that the annual cost of maintaining such young people was recently put at £125bn, which is more than the British state spends on either education or defence.John Harris is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...