Where are the Young Politicians?

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about young people’s involvement in politics – or rather their lack of involvement. My current placement has required me to read the local headline news first thing every day, to listen to the topical news radio programmes and keep abreast of developing stories as well as watching my Twitter feed for breaking news. I am now brimming with Northern Irish news to the point where I know more than my native contemporaries. Yes, it’s my job to know, but growing up I was always looking for the right motivation to keep in touch with ‘what’s going on’. Picking up a magazine was usually a more attractive choice to the national broadsheets but I think I did an alright job at being informed, without sounding old before my time.

Sadly, I don’t think that’s something that can be said of many young people. I recently read a comment that lamented the lack of young idealists in Northern Ireland. The author was comparing the current lack of opposition in the Northern Irish assembly with the years of the troubles when multiple parties sprung up to voice what the people they represented wanted. Of course there were groups that took it to the extreme, using undemocratic methods to put their point across however, I can see the author’s point. Things changed in that difficult era and in the subsequent times of peace making in the 90s because people made it happen, old and young alike. Who is stepping out from the crowd today?

As a young person I don’t have any political idols within government or the political circuit that inspire me to use the power that my ancestors fought for me to inherit: freedom of speech and the right to vote. I was disappointed that the NUS Marches in 2010, begun with good intentions, reduced some students to looking like tempestuous toddlers throwing their toys out of their prams. Then the riots of August 2011 didn’t stand for anything – they were a shocking demonstration that so many young people in the UK have no respect, no care or even a cause beyond creating chaos. Less than half of the young population, 44% of 18 to 24 year olds, voted in the general election of 2010. And how many people do you think voted in the X Factor final in the same year? Some speculate around 10 million. Comparing the general election with the final of a singing competition is not the fairest comparison but you can see what I’m getting at. And its no wonder young people aren’t voting when parties play dirty like the Tories’ playground tactics used in their ‘No to AV’ campaign in 2011.

Russia’s 2012 election has seen Putin come out on top again. You would do well to question the legality of the voting system, however what struck me was the young people’s participation. Putin has his own band of young supporters in the group called ‘Nashi’, or ‘Our People’. They have been compared to Hitler Youth and have over 100,000 members across Russia.* The Nashi have great belief in Putin and actively work to support him. They were recently accused of paying internet trolls to undermine his opponents online. However extreme they are, they feel they have found someone who can protect them and deliver what they think their country needs, in the man Putin. You would be hard pushed to find one young person who would defend the actions of a single politician in the UK, even if he is the Prime Minister.

Now, Alex Salmond and the SNP are arguing to extend voting at the referendum for Scottish independence to 16 and 17 year olds. Does he know something I don’t? I wonder if it can be true that the Scottish youth are more likely to engage with politics than the rest of the UK. It is probably because they, like their older counterparts, feel disillusioned with a parliament that has handed over government to parties that do not enjoy a majority in Scotland so many times in recent decades, and then failed to bring about the constitutional change needed to really give Scotland the voice it wants in its own government.

So, what can be done? The usual patronizing techniques of showing Cameron hanging out with the latest pop stars and idols, or Clegg meeting a crowd of students, rarely work. What I think could really help is for actual, real young people to really step up and start winning an audience in parliamentary politics.

The English monarchy has enjoyed a huge resurgence with the coming of age of its Princes William and Harry and of course the ever-lovable Duchess Kate. The Queen’s grandchildren have readdressed the balance within the monarchy, and are providing the fresh, young and modern approach needed to maintain or even regain the support of young people. UK Politics needs to find its William and Kate, and Harry in order that it is going to bring the young people with it further into the 21^st century. It needs to start listening and (I realize how completely contrived this sounds) representing its young people through a younger generation of politicians that know what they want, because they want the same things. Otherwise generation y and generation z are going to find other, more anti-social outlets for their frustrations.

*Channel 4 broadcast a great doc on Nashi in November 2011, ‘Unreported World: Vlad’s Army’.