"THEY are not fit to walk in the footsteps of the Jarrow marchers. If this is their level of commitment, no wonder they can’t find a job. It must have been a big shock having to get up in the morning rather than watch Jeremy Kyle.”

With those words, Robert Goodwill, the Conservative MP for Scarborough, condemned the small group of unemployed young people who set out on the 330-mile trek to London to raise awareness of youth unemployment.

Not since Norman Tebbit suggested that unemployed Liverpudlians should get on their bikes to find work, has a Conservative politician shown such woeful ignorance of underlying issues.

Mr Goodwill was answering claims that this second march, held to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the famous Jarrow crusade, was rapidly losing members and those that were left were travelling large parts of the route to London by minibus.

The marchers said it was always their intention for a small group to march the whole route with extra support.

The original Jarrow March, held to highlight long-term unemployment caused by the collapse of ship-building in the town, was attended by about 200 workers, as well as the town’s MP, Ellen Wilkinson.

Today’s march may be smaller but the problems are no less serious. The number of people under 24 out of work has reached 991,000.

Yet little is being done. The Government announcement of 250,000 extra apprenticeships will barely scratch the surface. Couple that with the increase in university tuition fees, the scrapping of the Education Maintenance Allowance and cuts to youth services across the country and you have the makings of a very angry generation of young people.

Angry was certainly one word to describe the Jarrow marchers when they spoke at a public meeting in Darlington this month.

They were eloquent, well-educated young people who were fed up with being ignored.

Unfortunately, they were ignored by the town’s political representatives who, except for one Labour councillor, stayed away.

Was it because the organisers, Youth Fight for Jobs, is an affiliate of the Socialist party, which developed from Labour’s Militant Tendency?

Instead, a group of trade unionists welcomed the marchers and homeless charity FirstStop and St Cuthbert’s Church, gave them food and shelter.

One suspects that if this were a meeting of pensioners complaining about pension changes, politicians would be falling over themselves to hear their views, regardless of political affiliation. Last year, 44 per cent of young people voted compared with 76 per cent of those over 65. Young people are victims of a system that fails to take into account their views.

At the moment, it is the Socialist party backing Youth Fight For Jobs. However, the British National Party and the English Defence League are always keen to extend a sympathetic ear to disenfranchised youth.

It would be a foolish person who dismissed what the present day Jarrow marchers have to say and failed to look at different ways to act upon it.

Seventy-five years ago, the original Jarrow Crusade arrived in London, amid popular acclaim, only to be told that the Conservative Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin would not see them or their representatives.

Unfortunately, in this way at least, the present day marchers are following in the footsteps of their predecessors.