THE Local Government Association (all political parties involved in this) recently met just down the A35 in Bournemouth.

I can almost hear people yawning, but they deal with so many weighty issues.

From their press release we are told, “Radical new powers must be given to councils to help transform the lives of millions of people who could be trapped in a future unemployment ‘twilight zone’, the new leader of local government in England and Wales said.

The LGA estimates that in less than a decade ‘a lost generation’ of eight million people – the population of London –could be without a job or in work they are over-qualified for.

This will lead to swathes of people with skills mismatched for jobs, risking them being in low paid, insecure work, and reliant on benefits, at a huge cost to people's lives and the local and national economy.

This vast deficit could mean projected national productivity plunging by a quarter before 2022 – equating to £374billion, which is how much the economy will lose.

That means the Government would be without £164billion in potential tax returns – an amount which could fund adult social care for a decade.”

Hopefully we will all stop yawning and contact our councillors to find out what they will actually be doing locally to avert this catastrophe befalling our country Ask what pressure they will be putting on the government – this and the next – to ensure we take remedial action, these are not just numbers, they are people and they might be us.

Lee Dalton, Fairview Road, Weymouth