It’s famously suggested that, over the past century, no Labour government bar one has left office with unemployment lower than when it entered. Tragically, Keir Starmer’s government looks set to retain that shameful record, with the news that a staggering 1.25 million young people will soon be NEETS – not in employment, education or training. That’s the highest level for well over a decade.

Yet how many of that vast number voted for a left-wing party at the last election, thereby helping to usher in this most hopeless government? According to YouGov, three-quarters of those under 30 did exactly that – mainly opting for Labour, with some plumping for Greens or LibDems. Clearly, voting Conservative wasn’t cool. Only 8% did so.

I suppose I can see why. The last Tory government hardly covered itself in glory (though it was a darn sight better than what followed) and even the older members of the under-30 brigade would have been only in their early teens when Labour was last in power. So, they were willing to listen to all that crazy “change” guff from Starmer and co, and ready to be convinced that if only we voted in a nice, fluffy left-wing party, Britain would once again be a land of milk, honey and jobs aplenty.

It didn’t work out like that, did it? Left-wing economics never does. As David Cameron put it, each generation has to fight and win the battle against socialism. There’s nothing like experiencing it for yourself to develop a gag-like reflex forever.

So, what did we get from Rachel Reeves in her very first budget? A huge hike in the jobs tax and business rates, and a massive increase in the minimum wage. If she was positively setting out to increase youth unemployment, she couldn’t have done it any better. The Employment Rights Act will just make it all even worse.

And this at a time when Artificial Intelligence is already threatening to replace so many of the entry-level jobs that youngsters have traditionally been employed to do. The amount of mid- and lower-skilled jobs in the economy has fallen by around 1.6 million over the last two decades, with vacancies in hospitality halving in recent years alone. What a great time to make it more expensive to hire young people, Ms Reeves.

No wonder so many youngsters are heading for a life on benefits. In fact, the government – and this is so ghastly I had to double-check it – spends 25 times more on benefits that it does on getting young people into work. That should be headlined in italics on the gravestone of this appalling government

So, will those millions of job-seekers, now that they’re experiencing Labour for themselves, realise that a vote for the Reds is like turkeys voting for Christmas? Dream on. Staggeringly, many of them reckon that Labour, far from being too left wing, is somehow not left-wing enough. That’s why they all see Zack Polanski’s Greens as the new “change” saviour.

I suppose one day they’ll understand that the only solution to the jobs crisis and the “lost generation” of youngsters is a vibrant, growing private sector, which in turn means lower tax and lower state spending. I suppose one day they’ll finally get that wealth has to be created, and that, in contrast, all we’re doing at the moment is suffocating dynamism.

But how soon will that day come? I fear everything’s going to get a whole lot worse before we’re finally ready to take our medicine. Meanwhile, the myth of the magic money tree lives on, and this generation of youngsters will have to suffer the consequences.