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- I just sat down and had a long conversation
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with my 16-year-old daughter.
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And she was asking me
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what can she expect with her future?
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We were talking about what colleges to go to
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and what kind of jobs might even be available
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in this new COVID reality.
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And she's had a tough year.
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You know, her GCSE exams were cancelled here in Britain.
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And for those of you, and the rest of the world,
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it's a real point in your high school career
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where you're judged and you're graded
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on how well you're gonna be able to compete in the future.
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There's just so much confusion that she has right now.
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If she goes to college,
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will she be taking classes virtually?
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Will there be any jobs after that?
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What is this new future look like
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in this lockdown economy or lack thereof?
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And you know, she's not alone.
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There's a lot of children
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that are asking a lot of questions.
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And I feel like we're responsible
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because we haven't given them any hope
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as far as what's gonna happen in the future,
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because all we've given them is uncertainty.
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And that's because we continually see a lack of leadership,
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we see a disproportionate response to this virus,
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and we see a total lack of science-based decision making.
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Which is not only ruining our economy,
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which is the backbone of London,
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it's also ruining the future of our children.
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And it's not just my daughter that's thinking this.
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The Prince's Trust recently did a survey
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of 2000 16 to 25 year old children or actually young adults.
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And they said we are at risk of creating a lost generation.
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And some of the figures were absolutely shocking.
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41% of these young children said
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it looked like now their goals were impossible to achieve.
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41%.
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Another 38% said now they think,
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in this new pandemic reality,
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that they'll never succeed in life.
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And then on top of that,
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another 43% said they'll probably never have
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a job they love.
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And when you get into poorer communities
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and less advantageous students it goes up to 55%,
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of actually believe they'll never have a job they love.
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Think about that.
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Think about being a teenager
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and believing you'll never have a job you love.
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You know, when I grew up as a kid
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my mom said, "Brian, you could do anything you want to."
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And maybe, that's just the mom being a mom,
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but I really believed it.
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She said, "You wanna be an astronaut?
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You can be an astronaut.
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You wanna be president?
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You can be president.
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You can be anything you wanna be."
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And I went at life that way
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and I've always treated my life that way,
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that if I worked hard enough,
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I could have anything I wanted.
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And I still believe that.
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We've gotta give this impression to our younger generation.
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They're the ones that are gonna be taking care of us.
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They're the ones that are gonna be funding
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our health services and building our economy.
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And if we don't give them this hope,
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then we're literally doomed.
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Everything is doomed,
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because literally the children are our future.
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And so that's why I'm frustrated.
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And I place the blame squarely on our leadership.
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Again, there's been a total lack of leadership.
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Again, a disproportionate response to this virus
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and a total lack of science-based decision making.
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We know we could get this economy back
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on track almost immediately
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if just started making intelligent decisions.
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We know we could protect those at risk
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and actually make a proportionate response to this virus.
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And finally, let's make some science-based decision making.
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Plain and simple, let's really lay out what we need to do
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and get everyone back to work, back to school,
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and let's get this world back
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to where our children have a future.
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And they at least believe and can dream
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that they can go and do anything they want
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and be anything they want.
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They know where they can go to college.
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They know that college is gonna be a real experience,
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hopefully with real people, just like my experience was
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and it literally changed my life.
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And so that's what I wanna talk about today.
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Please leave your comments below.
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If you're in that age group
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and you're feeling this way,
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if you're a parent of a child
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and you're getting these feelings,
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or if you have a contrary opinion, I'd love that.
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Share this video.
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If you want your elected representatives to hear this
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and you want them to and to listen and make a change,
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time is running out.
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We need a new direction.
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We need someone that can get up there
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and make these changes and really show some leadership.
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And again, get everything back on track
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and give new hope to our younger generation.
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Thank you very much.