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Arguing against the motion, ‘Politics excludes young people; therefore young people are apathetic and unlikely to vote.’
On the fifth of May, I, like so many other young people who had just turned 18, eagerly wandered down to my local polling booth, excited to be voting for the first time. I already knew all the candidates, already knew who to vote for. And the AV referendum is something I had been debating with other young people for weeks.
Yes, a large proportion of my time had been taken up debating about AV with other young people.
In the 2001 general election, 18-24 year olds were by far the least likely to vote, with only 39% dragging themselves down to the polling booths compared with the average of 59%. On first glance, this is damning proof that young people are indeed apathetic to politics.
But I don’t actually think that’s the case. I think we’ve seen recently a huge surge in political interest. In the 2010 general election, 44% of young people voted. Admittedly, this number still isn’t huge, but it’s a lot closer to the national average and it represents a significant change in people’s views. When the British Youth Council asked young people between 10 and 25 about their views on AV, which is obviously the topic of a 2011 vote, only a tiny 2% of people said they didn’t know where they stood on the subject. In fact, 42% stressed a strong opinion one way or another, and if 42% of young people voted on this referendum, they would match the national average.
The reason for this surge in political interest is unclear, but if I had to guess I would suggest two reasons. Firstly, these days, politics is actually interesting. The coalition, a virtually assured referendum on Scottish independence and AV have made sure of that. Secondly, and more importantly, I think, young people may well be starting to realise just how important politics is to them. We’ve seen the sweeping waves of cuts brought in by Cameron et al., we’ve seen his reforms on the NHS and Clegg’s calls for electoral reform, and we’ve been forced as young people to respond to that, positively or negatively.
So are young people apathetic and unlikely to vote? My answer is no, or, to be more exact, not really. Certainly we need to go further to get more young people casting their ballots, we need to get that percentage way, way up, but we cannot pretend that all young people don’t care about politics. A large proportion of us really do.
The question is whether politics excludes young people. I personally don’t think it does, for three reasons.
Firstly, I think politicians are very eager to get the young person’s vote. That’s why they often campaign in universities. That’s why every major political party has a youth branch. There’s “Liberal Youth”, “Conservative Future”, “Young Labour”, even “Resistance”, the BNP youth organisation. Recently, a handful of year eights from my school were gifted with the chance to go meet Nick Clegg and interview him. I too have been offered similar opportunities. Politicians cannot be accused of not trying to reach out to young people, because in reality they really do.
Secondly, there are organisations out there trying to even further increase young people’s involvement with politics. In 2009, the UK Youth Parliament chose to focus on the aim of reducing the voting age to 16, for example. The government has frequently attempted to reform the educational system to include some form of political education. One 19-year-old female’s view on this was included in a British Youth Council report: “Educate them!! Too many young people (and people in general actually) say that they don't vote because they don't understand politics and can't make an informed decision. Make PSHE in schools compulsory and teach them politics!” Indeed, education on politics would be a real step forward in encouraging a wider youth vote. That’s not a criticism of the system, it’s merely a comment on an improvement that could be made, and an improvement people are calling for.
Thirdly, there is the UK Youth Parliament. This was a scheme brought in to really help young people, even those below 18, feel their political opinions were being heard. And I think it’s worked, to some degree. Over 500,000 young people vote in the elections each year, which are held in at least 90% of constituencies. Certainly, the system is not perfect, the MYPs not known about widely enough, but it at least shows the commitment the government has to its young people and their political views.
So politics cares about its young people, and young people are increasingly growing to care about politics. Yes, it’s not perfect. Yes, we could see improvements on both sides. But to say that politicians don’t care about us, that young people are apathetic about politics, is unfair and, ultimately, unjustified. Read less