Tony Janio: Getting the message across to young people

Having spent a few hours last week chatting '˜politics' with a crowd of around 30 students, it became obvious to me that any discussion of '˜what happened in the 1970s and 1980s' '“ the last time we were threatened by a hard-left government '“ was met with the same disdain that greeted folks as they attempted to discuss the McMillian government of the 1950s with me as a youngster.

It seemed as relevant as discussing Agincourt!

Conservatives have spent the last couple of years attempting to scare youngsters with the historical antics of Jeremy Corbyn or John McDonnell, but this just doesn’t seem to be working. John McDonnell, as we all know, is a hard-left activist who has taken on the demeanour of your favourite Great-Uncle; but from his detestation of private companies, indicated by his suggestions of scrapping tax relief for pharmaceutical companies, to encouraging insurrection as his preferred means of changing government, we know that he is a dangerous man. More than this his old friend, Ken Livingstone, is calling for a Venezuelan-style authoritarian Government in the UK - presumably to cement his new socialist regime in which a majority if his MPs have ‘no confidence’ in him and the economy collapses under a McDonnell Chancellorship.

How do we get this message across? Venezuela, with oil reserves at the level of Saudi Arabia, is a good start. It is suffering economic collapse and causing real misery, with incomes returning to the level last seen in the 1950s, corruption endemic and the failure of the state seen everywhere. Venezuela prints money and blames capitalism for its failures, just like John McDonnell has said would probably happen in the UK.

Jeremy Corbyn imagines that Venezuela’s is a promising experiment in social justice, but it appears that the youngsters in Venezuela disagree: many can’t see a future at all and are fleeing from the country when they are able.

The UK has a proud tradition of accepting people escaping tyranny and maybe we should give young Venezuelans asylum so that, rather than politicians, they can explain to British youngsters just how dangerous Messrs Corbyn and McDonnell will be for our country.

Tony Janio is the leader of the Conservatives on Brighton and Hove City Council.