WITH just days to go until the country goes to the polls, it remains the most unpredictable of general elections.

Around 40 per cent of voters are reported to be still undecided about where to place their X and young people form a major part of that uncertainty.

Today, through the eyes of 23-year-old Gary Metcalfe, we explain why the younger generation feel so unsure about the future.

After earning a solid degree from Sunderland University and applying for 126 jobs without success in his chosen career of broadcast media, he has written a heartfelt open letter to party leaders, voicing his frustration.

"I am finding it increasingly frustrating that none of your parties seem to represent, or even notice, many of the young people in similar situations to myself," he writes.

Gary, who lives in the Durham community of Wheatley Hill, represents a fundamental problem for all the political parties. He is part of a generation which has amassed huge debt in gaining qualifications yet feels utterly hopeless about the chances of building a career and getting on the property ladder.

All he has been able to find is a part-time job as a shop assistant but he is luckier than the quarter of 16 to 24-year-olds in the North-East who have no work all.

That is why young people feel so disenfranchised from the political process – because they don't see believable answers contained in any of the party manifestos.

That is why so many North-East youngsters come to the conclusion that leaving the region and heading to London is the only road open to them.

And that is why we are publishing an open letter from Gary Metcalfe to the party leaders in today's Northern Echo – because the hopelessness of the younger generation is at the heart of this election.