Ismail Mulla

It’s that time of the year again for children. The summer holidays are drawing to a close, a new school year is about to begin. Some will be dreading the idea of having to return to the enclosure of a classroom, others will be excited.

Over the past couple of weeks the dye will have been cast for many young people when it comes to their immediate future. Last week, thousands of students received their A-Levels and yesterday thousands of children were either celebrating or being commiserated following their GCSE results.

An often overlooked frustration of modern life is road disruption. In some parts of Yorkshire there has been a plague of roadworks. A litter of traffic cones surround heavy machinery plonked in the middle of some of the busiest roads at peak times.

Nothing quite sums up British attitudes towards the healthcare system than the gaggle of discharged patients standing outside smoking a cigarette. No regard for their own wellbeing or that of the victims of second hand smoke, who are forced to walk through the toxic cloud that they’re emitting.

There’s a sense of deja vu once again with talk of reforming the social care system. Many Prime Ministers have tried and many have failed. Previous attempts have been scuppered as they were deemed too costly or the idea of putting up taxes was too unpalatable.

I must confess that I’d thrown in the towel many moons ago regarding the cost of living crisis. Supermarket shops were reduced to the basic essentials and treats have been off the menu other than for those rare special occasions, occasions that are only getting rarer.

Sometimes the red mist descends and in a fit of anger people do something that they invariably end up regretting. We’ve all been there. Wanting to lash out as a result of frustration. Even when we know the best course of action would be to let the sting of the situation dissipate and then react in a calm and rational manner.

There’s something admirable about Ed Miliband. I know there will be many of our readers who won’t countenance anything positive about the Energy Secretary being said but I actually think there is a thing or two that some of Miliband’s Cabinet colleagues and would-be Cabinet members could learn from him.

The old cliche is that all political careers end in failure and that can’t certainly be said about Sir Keir Starmer’s time at the top of British politics. The Prime Minister, teary-eyed, announced he would be resigning as leader of the Labour party.

Alan Milburn’s report on young people and work landed like a hand grenade last month, shocking politicians, educators and economists alike. The fact of the matter is that Britain is on a dangerous trajectory when it comes to unemployment.