We had exactly five minutes with Mr Blair no time to follow up his answers.
Sinead Kirwan: What will the Labour Party do for kids if you win the next election?
| Why are kids taxed for VAT and for Saturday jobs when they cant even vote? |
Mr. Blair: Education is very important. We want to make sure that children are able to use the new technology properly, because thats going to be very important for them in later life. And I hope that we will make our streets safer, so that kids don't feel in fear of crime when theyre walking the streets.
Kathleen Dawes: Why are kids taxed for VAT and for Saturday jobs when they cant even vote?
Mr. Blair: That is a very good question. I understand why people say, "Well if we're paying taxes, why shouldn't we have the vote? You've got to have a cut-off point somewhere, 18 is probably right.
Mehrak Golestan: How do you think teen offenders should be punished?
Mr. Blair: I think that you need a range of penalties. We don't do very much with teenage offenders, until things get really serious. And then we do a lot with them. There should be a range of penalties so they can be restricted, like not being able to go out on Saturdays. And then you've got to tell them, in effect, that if they don't start behaving responsibly, they're going to get worse penalties.
Mehrak: Why do people say that you use Margaret Thatcher's policies?
Mr. Blair: I don't think they do. I've said that she was a very determined person in her politics, and I'm a determined person in my politics. I don't share her politics. But I do want the same determination to do the things for the country that I believe to be right.
Sinead: Why did you send your son to an opt-out school that was several miles away?
Mr. Blair: (His former) school is a church school, and he's at a church school now. And in fact, there werent church schools to which the children from his school go that were near us. We went to that school because we thought it was the right school for him. And I love my child, I want to do the right thing for him.
About the team
Reporters: Sinead Kirwan, 10, Kathleen Dawes, 12, and Mehrak Golestan, 11. Editors: Julia Press, 15, and Jamie Burnett, 16. This article was published in a Children's Express in-house publication, Inside Track.
