Terry Murden: Ministers must fight their corner for the young jobless

Describing the event at the George Hotel, Edinburgh, as his "first posh dinner outing", the minister mentioned two particular topics. Renewables, he said, were "quite possibly the biggest opportunity Scotland has ever had".

But perhaps playing a little more to his audience, he also referred to one of Scotland's biggest problems. In his early discussions with Scotland's various business organisations the one common theme that had emerged was that of youth unemployment.

"We are all in this together," he said, either deliberately stealing the Tories' rallying cry or else momentarily forgetting that someone else had used the phrase before him. No matter, we knew what he meant.

His brief comments on joblessness among the young were well-timed, coinciding with new figures showing the alarming nature of the country's battle with a massive social and economic crisis.

Between 1997 and 2010, which the Tories have seized on as the Labour years, the number of households in Britain in which no-one has ever had a job almost doubled from 184,000 to 352,000.

There are now 265,000 under 16s living in such households, workless youngsters inheriting a legacy of worklessness and in many cases lethargy towards work that quite clearly is being passed on through the generations.

The latest unemployment figures from the Office for National Statistics show that just over 18 per cent of 16 to 24 year olds are without a job.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has described unemployment among the young as a "hidden disaster" and has pledged in particular to tackle the lost generation of school leavers in a new jobs programme.

Duncan Smith believes the problem among this group is even worse than for those of college age and above with only 35 per cent of school leavers in work last year against 80 per cent in the early 1990s.

He speaks frankly about disfunctionality and generational worklessness, a culture of never knowing work or wanting to work and therefore creating a permanent reliance on state benefits for them and their families.

But there is little point in having one minister creating state-funded job schemes for the young while his cabinet colleagues are axing thousands of jobs in the public sector.There may be a good case for reducing the size of the state but evidence that the private sector is mopping up these people or creating jobs that will give the young a career start is at best flimsy.

Youth unemployment is not just a matter of worklessness - amongst the vulnerable and immature it also nurtures fecklessness, misbehaviour and indiscipline. It manifests itself in anti-social behaviour and criminality.

In days past many school leavers would have gone straight into the factories, the mines, steelworks and shipyards. The collapse of Britain's industrial base took with it a clearly defined pecking order of supervisors, foremen, charge hands and apprentices.

The industries of old not only provided jobs, pay packets and pensions, they also possessed an ordered environment where everyone knew their place and what was expected of them. The work may have been harsh, but it paid the bills and gave employees a sense of pride and structure to their daily lives. What's more, factory life was organic, with its own codes of behaviour and the older hands had a way of dealing with anyone who stepped out of line.

With that gone, young people have been left to their own devices, making up their own rules, often outside those deemed acceptable. Too many have been forced back into further education where they are square pegs in round holes, undertaking pointless and unsuitable courses.

Fergus Ewing and Iain Duncan Smith have identified the trends among the young and the problem may even keep them awake at night. But they'll need the support of their fellow ministers if they really want to improve the conditions in society that will give young people more hope as well as a job.