A lack of ambition is destroying British youth - Telegraph.co.uk (blog)

Ed Miliband speaking at the Labour Party Conference. (Photo: PA)

Poor Ed Miliband, who spoke yesterday at the Labour Party conference. Other than those in the conference hall, no one seemed to be clapping. But I was pleased that he highlighted the injustice of bright children who are full of potential, but held back by low aspirations.

Too many working-class British communities are blighted by low expectations for their children. As a person who grew up in one such area in south London, I wish my school had done more to encourage and reward ambition. Politicians too often fail to see the benefit of raising hopes for the future in the young. In my community, the teenage pregnancy rate is one of the highest in Britain – but I've seen first-hand that there is no contraception like aspiration. And why would any teenage boy with dreams join a criminal gang when so many aspirations in life require a clean criminal record? Luckily, and unhelped by school, I discovered ambition in my mid-twenties, but many are not so fortunate.

Sadly, parents whose own mother and father had no aspirations for them now have no expectation of academic success for their offspring. I've lost count of the number of young people I've met who not only have low ambitions for themselves, but also for their peers: I often listen to friends from working-class backgrounds who believe that university isn't for the likes of them, while my friends from middle-class backgrounds assume it as a right. Recently I spoke to a 17-year-old girl who attended my old secondary school. She told me that her mother suggested that after she finishes her media vocational training at college, she should get a job within the care industry – because they take anyone. This culture of aiming low and expecting little ruins the lives of thousands of bright British children.

I agree with Mr Miliband: much more can be done to raise the aspirations of low-aspiration communities like mine. But if they come into power, could he and Labour deliver?