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Critics are getting their teeth into the Employment Minister Sir Reg Empey after he called some16 - 24 year olds not in employment, education or training "vampires" because they get up at 3pm and stay up all night. Alliance youth chair Conrad Dickson, for example, reckons that whilst Sir Reg is siting in "his ministerial ivory tower" and hurling "insults at young people", he does not understand the realities of what it is like to leave education, only to face months or years of looking for a job.

Fair enough, Sir Reg may well be forced to backtrack. But do 16 - 24 year olds think being called a "vampire" is an insult or a compliment these days? I only ask because 1) I can remember being fairly nocturnal at that age and 2) last night on Radio 5 I listened to lots of teenagers screaming at the premiere of the new Has the Ulster Unionist leader inadvertently tripped over the new teenage taste for vampire chic.

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