Oh, so you don’t DO politics?
InSITE Correspondent Shae Courtney questions whether politics is 'cool' enough to get young people interested
What always strikes me as quite peculiar is when people say they don’t do politics. Yet, it’s almost impossible not to be involved in some kind of way with politics. Everything from the cost of a loaf of bread to the cost of a packet of cigarettes depends on the people from Whitehall. So, if a person thinks that the cost of a pint of cider should be cheaper or pub-opening hours should be less restrictive then really, unknowingly to themselves, they DO politics, but are either ignorant or lack understanding in the field.
There is a common held opinion amongst the young, hip and trendy population that anything to do with politicians is “uncool.” Do young people feel that way because they can’t vote until they’re 18? Or is it that teenagers feel ever more disengaged from politics because the election lingo is geared at adults and the increasing “grey vote” (politics aimed at the over sixties).
In an effort to make politics seem more attractive to the young, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, has made subscription to the Party free for anyone under 18 and interested in becoming a Conservative member. Sadly, I fear that the well-spoken man from his Witney constituency needs to do more than make free subscription offers to win over the young generations, but at least they’re trying. Another issue is that a lot of young people misunderstand what politicians, from both left and right of government, stand for. From personal experience, teenagers view MPs as upper-crust aristocrats rather than people that, on the whole, come from modest backgrounds.
There has been little that has been done to emancipate teenagers’ views.
There has been little that has been done to emancipate teenagers’ views. The voting age is still 18 with little talk since the last General Election of 2005 of it being dropped to 16. There is also very little that has been done by the major political parties to encourage young people to get involved. The Youth Parliament was set up in July of 1999 by the House of Commons to encourage 11-18 year olds to get involved with politics and bring about social change. As I found out from two of my closest friends, they think that politics is both “confusing” and “not geared towards young people”.
One even thought “people are separated from politics by the lack of understanding and confusing election jargon.” The other cited adults becoming uninterested in politics because of the lack of difference they think they can individually make – this could then infiltrate down to their children who could hold a similar opinion. There seems to be no one solution to the lack of involvement that teenagers and young people have in politics. A culmination of tedious election garbage, the conception that individuals on their own make no difference and the stereotypes that many young people are influenced by, comes together to make politics not only plain and grey, but out-of-bounds for those not 30 years old and over and greying heavily.
