Young people and politics. The eternal issue.
Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2010 at 4:07pm
4 responses
In a few minutes I’m going over to take part in a panel debate with the South Wales Forum of the European Youth Parliament. Other AMs will be on the panel too, at least that’s what the usual format is.
Now, I love speaking to young people about politics. I hope I can enthuse them to a certain degree to get involved in politics though I’m not stupid enough to think that any one individual can turnaround a mass of young people who currently do not vote, and who feel alienated from political processes through no fault of their own.
But to be devil’s advocate, these panel sessions alone won’t inspire people to get out there and change the World. I go in to schools and Universities, of course, but again, these are usually panel discussions, and it is hard to sustain communication with the school children or the students following said event unless a few conscientious people email me for help, or come and do work experience with me.
Essentially what I’m hinting at is that politics needs to be embedded in to everything we do with young people. Yes, they do studyelements of politics during PSE lessons and in the Welsh Bacc, but on an anecdotal level, this isn’t always prioritised or well structured, and teachers, through no fault of their own are often not trained sufficiently to teach such subjects during the PSE time allocation.
Yes, AMs go in to schools and people study politics at A level, but we still haven’t arrived in being able to encourage people to a) vote or to b) get involved themselves. What will it take, I hear you ask? Well, as I’ve harped on about for a while, I think we need to set up a new Youth Parliament for Wales that will feed directly in to the workings of the National Assembly for Wales.
When I mentioned this idea at a recent event( which is supported by numerous organisations by the by), Kirsty Williams dismissed this idea as more process.
But I beg to differ. Funky Dragon is a youth organisation, but it is a charity, and informs the Welsh Government and its work. Reperesentatives from Funky Dragon tell me that it is difficult for them to get involved in politics in other ways, other than to inform Government policies and strategies due to their charity sector status.
I don’t for a minute wish to undermine this work, but what I will say is that the Assembly’s Commission should seriously consider setting up a Youth Parliament for Wales that can meet on a regular basis, that can take part in Assembly businesses in a constructive and meaningful way, without fearing that they will be too political or whether they will annoy Government Ministers.
With the newish Youth Chamber in the old Assembly chamber now up and running, with schools and youth forums using it on a regular basis, now is the time to start thinking about how a Youth Parliament could work in practise. If there’s anyone out there who wants to help with this, and I know you are out there, then please get in touch. At the end of the day, these young people are the future leaders, and if they don’t vote and become passionate about politics now, what’s to say they ever will?
I have never really thought about having a Youth Parliament before, certainly a worthy idea.
The fact remains that are young people are not given the tools or encouragement to take part meaningfully in their own democracy. It is a self fulfilling prophecy – young people dont vote, so why act on or appeal to their concerns.
Fundamentally there must be proper democratic education in schools. I also think there needs to be elections in schools like they have in universities. Young people need to be educated and encouraged about the benefits of participating in democratic elections.
An idea I had before was for young people to be given internships with AMs in a non partisan way. Perhaps with those interns being voted in via a poll of some sorts. With the advent of regional AMs, young people have a number of representatives to work with and learn about their role.
Lowering the voting age to 16 too Bethan! I know you agree. I think that would do a lot to encourage politicians to engage more with youth and foster forward looking legislation.
Plaid could also look at- at council level maybe- postive discrimination on party lists in favour of candiadtes under 30?
Just an idea…
oh- the unofficial plaid newport blog plaidcasnewydd.blogspot.com is up and running again…
Agree with everyting you say Bethan
I think its realy important that we have something more like a Welsh Youth Parliament which can speak for young people and allow for younger people to get involved in politics and create more interest in politics.
I definately agree that the voting age should be lowered to 16 as if young people can get married, get a job, and pay tax then they should be able to vote and have a say in who runs our country.
I think you may need to check your facts. There is not a single exam board in the entire United Kingdom that offers Politics at GCSE level and therefore there is not a cat in hell’s chance that there is a GCSE in politics with welsh language provision. Perhaps this is part of the problem with young people’s lack of participation in politics as they cannot become engaged in it at a young age unless they go about doing so outside of their time in schools. I had only one hour of government and politics in my entire time in school up to age 16. This lesson was awful with the teacher unsure on what was to be taught and how it was to be delivered. This didn’t put me off politics, I’m doing an As level in it, but this ramshackle experience combined with a constant negative stream of reporting from the popular media will leave many alienated. Politics matters yet is seen as unnecessary, boring and uncool. The establishment must make an effort to connect with the young and convince them that politics is the route to a better future for all. Cross party consensus must be achieved on this otherwise the above article’s conclusion will be the result, with politics left to those who actively seek it and not the entire country.