You’re not listening, Minister
At the last General Election, only 39 per cent of people aged 18-24 bothered to vote.
| A lot of emphasis was put on the adults’ opinions, and young people were left with raised hands and unanswered questions. |
The government decided that something needed to be done, and turned to its Children and Young People's Unit, which includes a board of young people to advise Ministers on issues concerning youth issues.
Last summer the CYPU carried out a survey, YVote?/YNot? which questioned 1000 young people to find out why we are not interested in politics. Children's Express went along to the release of its findings to see what politicians are doing wrong.
Immediately we walked into the auditorium we faced a panel of adults with just two young people sandwiched in between them. We were expecting the young people to dominate, but found that government officials talked at us rather than to us.
A lot of emphasis was put on the adults' opinions, and young people were left with raised hands and unanswered questions.
Boring
We waited 10 minutes for our questions to be answered; when they were, we were left unsatisfied and felt that our opinions, as young people, were dismissed.
We were also surprised that the film shown highlighted young people's expectations of the government, and raised some valuable points, but was stripped of its youthfulness by the use of an adult voice-over. Whatever happened to young people being listened to?
So what did the survey say? Three out of four felt that young people should be taught more about politics in school and more than half felt media coverage of politics should be more interesting. There was also a strong feeling that portrayals of young people are overwhelmingly and unfairly negative.
The launch was boring because we felt excluded; we couldn't relate to anyone on the panel. The two young people who sat with the ministers didn't say much, and the atmosphere was like that of a classroom.
The young people we spoke to thought that although the government has come a long way they still have a lot of room for improvement. Others felt that they tried to listen to them but that their views were not really taken that seriously.
One youth worker said he had "switched off", and: "If it was boring for me, what did young people think of it?"
But panellist Joe Hewlett, 15, was very enthusiastic about the event, and saw the day as a move in the right direction.
The most interesting part of the day was lunch where we sat among other young people. And there was not a Government minister in sight.
Funny that.
About the team
This story was produced by Camille Noreiga, 17, Gabriella Gay and Chris Fletcher, 16, and Jenny Roe-Stanton, 15. A slightly shorter version was published in the Daily Mirror as part of a special Children's Express pull-out on the UK Youth Parliament.
For more information about the Children and Young People's Unit, visit www.cypu.gov.uk
