The Kids Aren’t Alright

Downturn hits Leeds’s young workers:

RISING numbers of young people in Leeds are feeling the impact of the UK’s economic downturn, a new report revealed today.

Data analysed by the Prince’s Trust shows the number of 18 to 24-year-olds in the city claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance has soared by nearly 70 per cent in the last year.

The estimated cost of benefits to claimants in that age group is now more than £330,000 every week.

And the Prince’s Trust fears youth charities in the region could soon find themselves struggling to cope with the amount of young people coming to them for help and advice.

Peter Branson, regional director for the trust in Yorkshire and Humberside, said: “Our region’s most vulnerable youngsters will be permanently damaged by the downturn, unless they receive the support they need.

Exit Stage Left

No rescue for closure threat Leeds ITV studio:

ITV’s Leeds base has suffered another blow after Yorkshire Forward announced it will not be buying studios earmarked for closure.

The news comes as the beleaguered broadcaster outlined plans to strip out another £40 million in cost savings after reporting a 14 per cent slide in first quarter revenues.

A spokesman for ITV said they would not be breaking down where the £40 million cost cuts would be made but he could not rule out further job cuts in Leeds.

See also: There’s No Business In Show Business

Sigh-To-Let

From today’s Times:

Buy-to-let landlords struggle to repay their loans:

Tens of thousands of landlords are struggling to meet their mortgage repayments as the economic downturn devastates the buy-to-let market, according to a new report.

Moody’s, the ratings agency, released figures yesterday showing that 3.55 per cent of landlords were at least three months behind with mortgage payments in the first quarter of the year — compared with 0.95 per cent in the same period a year ago. Repossessions of buy-to-let loans had also risen marginally, to 0.18 per cent in the first three months of this year from 0.13 per cent in the first three months of last year.

Tiberius says: “Get ready for Headingley, Hyde Park, and Burley to look even more like post-apocalyptic wastelands than they do already”.

See also: Live and Buy-To-Let Die; Bye-To-Let

Provoking The Crisis

From Sunday’s Guardian: G20 police ‘used undercover men to incite crowds’

An MP who was involved in last month’s G20 protests in London is to call for an investigation into whether the police used agents provocateurs to incite the crowds.

Liberal Democrat Tom Brake says he saw what he believed to be two plain-clothes police officers go through a police cordon after presenting their ID cards.

“Well-I-Never,” says Tiberius (who is considering organising a national ‘Well-I-Never’-athon in response to the shocking news).

We all thought that such Machiavellian tactics were the exclusive employ of totalitarian dicatorships and banana republics; this could never happen in a modern, enlightened democracy – could it?

“Oh wait” says Tiberius, scrolling further down and sighing with relief:

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “We would never deploy officers in this way or condone such behaviour.”

And, as we also know, the MET have never been anything less than 100% accurate about everything they’ve been involved in; they, as a institution, hold the truth to be sacrasanct; and they would never, ever consider violating their sacred oath of trust with the  public – right?

Tiberius says: “Get yourself down to tomorrow’s Policing The Crisis event – it just may be more important than Leeds reaching the play-off final!”

What’s Slimmer Than a Glimmer?

Stretching the boundary of what constitutes a ‘glimmer’ way beyond credibility-point, the YEP today published a “Glimmer of hope for newspaper publishers“:

Newspaper publishers Johnston Press and Trinity Mirror reported more advertising pain today, but offered a glimmer of hope amid signs revenue declines are bottoming out.

Johnston Press, which owns The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post, [Note: and the YEP] noted “greater stability over recent weeks” as advertising revenues fell 34.4% in the 19 weeks to May 9, easing from the near-36% plunge seen over the first two months.

Read: The Bad News is that our business is going down the pan; The Good News is that it is  going there less quickly than it once was – 1.6 per cent less quickly in fact.

The reality however is that, although local papers have – like everyone else – been  affected by the credit-crunch,  they have a far more terminal problem that would, even in a rosier economic climate, be threatening their existence: the internet.

Earlier this year, former chairman of Johnston Press Roger Parry spoke at length on this issue of the bleak future for local news (reported by Tiberius here) where he painted this doomsday scenario:

Local newspapers are nearing the end of their Cretaceous era. The asteroids – recession and the internet – have landed and the K-T extinction horizon is imminent

And though the recession may one day be behind us, Tiberius doesn’t see even a newly-redefined-glimmer of hope that ‘the internet’ is going to be ending anytime soon.