ABSTRACT
A few years ago, I invented a mythical androgenous character called Tommy (or Tammy) Butler and mapped his life chances in each decade since the Second World War (Williamson 2001a). He (for it was more likely to be ‘he’—four out of five ‘socially excluded’ young people are young men (House of Commons Education Committee 1998)) epitomised that classic disadvantaged young person who, as youth transitions became more complex (Furlong and Cartmel 1997), became increasingly at risk of social exclusion. The fact that Tommy’s initials are the same as Tony Blair’s is no coincidence. In 1999, when the Prime Minister launched Bridging the Gap (Social Exclusion Unit 1999a) he made an implicit promise to the likes of Tommy: social inclusion was a top priority for the new Labour government. New measures would be put in place to maximise young people’s participation in education and training (the best protective factor against social exclusion) and to minimise their risks of dropping out. There would be both generalised initiatives to support and involve all young people and more targeted measures directed at particular groups of young people (such as young offenders) or at particular issues (such as teenage pregnancy and young motherhood). Prior to this commitment by the government, at least until the mid-1990s, Tommy and Tammy Butler and their contemporaries across different generations had steadily slipped off the policy radar map.
