BY IAN GRANT
LONDON - The British government has stepped up scapegoating of youth for society's ills. On September 21 Home Secretary Jack Straw announced plans to impose curfews on young people. "Parenting orders" would be imposed on parents whose alleged lack of supervision is considered by the courts to have been a contributing factor.

These measures would include forcing parents to escort their children to school. Failure to take part in or complete the orders would be punishable by a 1,000 ($1,500) fine. An unnamed government official told the Sunday Telegraph that there is "a proven link between young people's offending and bad parental control. Other factors like social background and educational ability do play a part, but the role of parents is crucial."

According to the Chief Inspector of Prisons, "young offenders" are the most rapidly increasing section of the prison population in the UK. The extension of custodial sentencing of minors, removal of immunity from criminal prosecution of children aged 10 - 13 years, and making parents of children answerable in court for their youth's actions, are measures also being floated in "consultation papers" to be published in advance of the government's Crime and Disorder Bill due before Parliament in early 1998.

The Labour Party's brochure during the election earlier this year stated, "At present many young offenders have a license to carry on offending." Promised action included halving the time from arrest to sentencing. In a further attack on the rights of young people, Labour's trade and industry secretary, Margaret Beckett, has suggested that those aged 16-25 might be exempted from the proposed statutory minimum wage currently under discussion.

Employers' organizations have opposed setting the minimum at the rate proposed by the Trades Union Congress of half of the male median earnings - around 4.61 ($6.90) - on the pretext that they would be forced to cut jobs and raise prices. A survey purporting to confirm such conclusions has recently been submitted to the low pay commission from the British Chamber Of Commerce, an employers organization.

The suggestion that young workers might be excluded from protection under the provisions of any minimum wage legislation was made in a letter from Beckett to low pay commission chairman George Bain. According to a Department of Trade and Industry spokesman, this was based on the fear that a national minimum wage would "provide a disincentive for young people to stay in education and training, or restrict employment opportunities for those looking for jobs."

Access to university education will be restricted by a government decision to make students pay 1000 tuition fees for the first time next year.

A recent Office of National Statistics survey showed one in five workers would get a pay rise if a minimum wage was set at the Trades Union Congress definition of half male median earnings. Nearly half of all part-time workers would get a raise.

A scheme to withdraw benefits from young people unemployed six months or longer who refuse to accept a government subsidized job with a private employer, educational or training placement, or voluntary work will be implemented as part of Labour's election pledge to get more young people into work.  
 
 
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