Things like the Erasmus scheme helped many of us who would not otherwise have been able to experience what we did. And besides, by limiting that choice, it has only served to make things, in those further-away nations, more expensive for those with less.

Here we are then with the new scheme. It’s not entirely clear why the government is being so coy about it. Even though it is believed to be close to a done deal, do they fear that if they’d shown any positive thaw towards the EU ahead of the council elections they’d lose more votes to Reform? That didn’t exactly play out well.

Neither does it stack up. Recent YouGov polling on this scheme showed over two-thirds more people across the country were in favour than against. Even in Clacton, in Nigel Farage’s constituency, more people were in favour than against.

And as polling Big Issue has carried out shows, poverty is a key and driving concern for voters. Anger that the government has not used its majority to get stuck into poverty yet is driving people from Labour. Reform are clearly beneficiaries. So long as Labour doesn’t get to grips with that, they allow space for Reform to explain what Reform see as the causes of poverty – and allows them then to explain how they’d fix it, when Labour can’t.

It’s possible that Labour are keeping their powder dry ahead of a major conference next week. On 19 May there is a summit with UK and EU leaders. They’re going to look at security mostly, we are told, and potentially something around fishing. It may be that the government want to present the EU-UK youth mobility scheme as a win to show a positive outcome from the talks. If that is so, it feels like a minor victory.

Labour have a whopping majority. We all understand that money is tight, that things sometimes take time
and that politics has a lot of wheels within wheels.

If they don’t start shifting those wheels and moving through the gears, it’s going to be a long parliament for them, and us. Though, if you’re under 30, there is something to look towards.

Paul McNamee is editor of the Big Issue. Read more of his columns here. Follow him on X.

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