Linda Gilroy and I today attended the election of Plymouth’s Members of the Youth Parliament at the Council House in Plymouth.
I attended the UK Youth Parliament elections for the first time two years ago. I stood in for Gary Streeter, my Tory opponent, who was unable to attend at the last minute. In my remarks I said that young people often had a bad reputation in the media and our community thanks for reporting about hoodies and anti-social behaviour. But this isn’t the young people I see week in week out doing voluntary work, studying hard and playing sport. Young people often get a bad reputation but this isn’t always deserved. Today, I was reminded of this again as I saw eleven young people working really hard to represent Plymouth at a local and national level. They were quite impressive.
It is good to see so many young people being passionate about politics. MYPs are not party political but they certainly have clear political perspectives, policies and visions for our city. The young people competing today shared a lot of common policies – banning plastic carrier bags in Plymouth, lowering bus fares and dealing with bullying to name but a few. All of them also understood the importance of listening and speaking to their electorate. It was quite inspiring actually.
Politics is sometimes an occupation where young people are encouraged to enter but afforded very little responsibility if and when they’re involved. As a ‘young candidate’ myself, I was impressed by the passion, maturity and focus on the candidates today. Politics would be a much better profession if everyone who works within it showed as much commitment to representing their constituents as these young people do. I hope that today’s vote won’t be the end of being involved in politics for the candidates and the young people who voted. We need more young people in politics. Well done all.
Find out more about the Youth Parliament here.
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