Tom Richmond: Students could learn a lesson from Redwood

Yet some of these same young people, and their friends, are part of the growing number of graduates who are unable to find work after completing at least three years of hard partying – sorry, studying – at university.

The problem is particularly acute here in Yorkshire.

If they want some advice, they should perhaps consider one of Redwood's more recent entries on his daily blog when the former Cabinet minister, who actually stayed true to his principles when he challenged, unsuccessfully, for the Tory leadership in 1995, sifted through the latest batch of job applications that he had had the misfortune to receive from potential assistants.

"Some are unable to write a sentence. There are usually spelling and typing errors – understandable in the rush of everyday communication but glaring in a considered and formal document like a CV," says Redwood.

"One example produced the following second sentence to the application: 'I fill the experience I have gained in past employment will put me in good persian for this role'. Often through no fault of their own, a person who sounds as if they should at the very least be a senior executive has never held a more senior position than that of intern or helper in the local cafe."

Redwood accepts that the current jobs market is not healthy. Contrary to the views of some university lecturers, he is a pragmatist. He is also a very clear communicator – many people of a more mature age have remarked that he speaks with great clarity on the most complex of subjects, even if they do not necessarily agree with his opinions.

And typically, in this instance, he said it is up to the students concerned to address their shortcomings: "The way young people are trained to present themselves does not always help them. Too many of them present the tutor's package, rather than telling prospective employers who they are, what they are good at and what they want to do."

It is advice that today's out-of-work graduates, and those university students who will soon have to

start working for living, would be

well advised to heed – even if it comes from such an unconventional source.

AS well as being in a quandary over Diane Abbott's future role, as I highlighted last week, Labour is heading for another problem – its upper echelons being dominated by two families.

Irrespective of the result, brothers David and Ed Miliband will hold key posts. So, too, will Morley MP Ed Balls – and his wife Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, and the only member of this quartet not to be standing for the top job.

With figures like acting leader Harriet Harman wanting half of the party's Shadow Cabinet posts to be held by women, there's every prospect that Cooper, the Pontefract and Castleford MP, will be Shadow Chancellor by the autumn as the Miliboys and Balls families tighten their grip on the party hierarchy.

Is this beneficial for Labour's future chances? Or does this increase, rather than lessen, the likelihood of the dreadful Abbott being given a senior post?

TALKING of Labour, some former Ministers appear to be relishing their new responsibilities in Opposition, while others appear all at sea and some, like the vastly experienced Alan Johnson and Jack Straw, decide to follow Alistair Darling's lead and leave the front bench once a new leader is elected.

Darling's loss will be particularly noticeable. He has proved to be particularly adept at opposing George Osborne, his successor as Chancellor of the Exchequer, with a series of tough questions that are intended to hold the Government to account.

This is what Opposition spokesman should be doing – and there's a lot to admire about Darling's statesmanlike approach.

Some will say that he should have been more diligent when he was at the Treasury and stood up to Gordon Brown over the ballooning deficit.

I agree. But I also suspect that Darling was banging his head against the proverbial brick wall – and that all will be revealed in his memoirs that are likely to be far more colourful than the Labour man's demeanour. They'll certainly be far more candid than any attempt by Gordon Brown to rewrite history.

EVEN though the Government has changed, and Labour's "nanny state" has been consigned to history, Wakefield MP Mary Creagh appears reluctant to change her ways.

She's already blaming the new Government for cutting funding for speed cameras, and echoing the warning of Brake, the road safety charity, that there will be "blood on our roads".

Creagh seems unconvinced by the Ministerial argument that these are decisions for local authorities, like Wakefield, rather than politicians in Whitehall – and the extent to which speed cameras were used as a "cash cow" to prop up Labour's finances rather than as a means of penalising those drivers who pose a safety risk.

ONE of the many crass excuses given for England's pathetically lame performances in their early games at the World Cup was the inability of players to smile more. Former manager Graham Taylor is among those who holds this view.

What nonsense. When Tim Henman was trying, and failing, to win Wimbledon, he was deemed to be too nice. Yet now Andy "Surly Scot" Murray is accused of being dour. The result is likely to be the same – no men's winner at SW19 since Fred Perry.

It's why the answer to this country's sporting woes is far more fundamental – we're simply not good enough.

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