IT’S a sad indictment of this country’s governing system when so many young people are unemployed and have little hope of finding any kind of employment in the near future.

When I neared the end of my school years we had a wide variety of firms local to the area and visits to several were organised to let young people see the opportunities on offer.

This helped everyone when it came to choosing something that, for many, would see them through their entire adult life.

The latest unemployment figures for the young – 27,000 – in our region (Echo, May 26) are a disgrace considering that the area has returned Labour MPs for as long as many can remember. This, and the fact that some of them are presently in Cabinet positions, shows how much these people regard those who have put them in the positions they hold.

The policies that this “right wing” Labour Party have adopted since coming to power in 1997 under Tony Blair have allowed the nation’s manufacturing base to be exported overseas in pursuit of cheap labour and increased profits which has brought this mass unemployment with its sense of hopelessness of ever finding work.

Peter Dolan, Newton Aycliffe, Co Durham.