Online hustings gives teenagers chance to put politicians on the spot

OUR website, Walesonline, is hosting a youth hustings event this week as part of our coverage to encourage and enable young people to be more involved in this year’s Senedd election.

The event takes place at 8pm tomorrow, and will be streamed live on our Facebook and Youtube pages. Labour Health Minister Vaughan Gething, Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price and Welsh Conservatives leader

Andrew RT Davies will be taking questions.

It’s part of our drive to get more young people engaged in the election, in which around 70,000 teenagers in Wales aged 16 and 17 will be able to cast their vote for the first time.

Young people tend to find themselves on the margins of traditional political debate and strategies, despite being at the forefront of major political and social movements.

They have the technical and organisational skills to make their voices heard and care deeply about issues.

Put simply, they are the future. Yet many of them do not feel politics in Wales is working.

A Yougov poll for Wales Online in March showed that young people aged 16 to 24 are far more likely than any other group to want independence for Wales, are resolutely proeu and are by far the most critical of how governments in Wales and Westminster have handled coronavirus.

An earlier Yougov survey in November 2020 showed that 69% of 16 to 24-year-olds surveyed said the forthcoming election was important to them, an especially high figure considering successive Senedd elections have failed to realise a 50% turnout of voters.

We have chosen Labour, Plaid Cymru and the Conservatives

to take part in this debate because they are the three parties with a realistic chance of having the next First Minister.

Technical reasons also limit the numbers of people we can host.

There are, of course, several other political parties fielding candidates.

We will be providing extensive coverage of the Senedd elections in the coming weeks and will be giving these parties a platform.

We are also seeking to hold further live debates in which a wider range of political parties will be represented.

Jessica Blair, director of the Electoral Reform Society Cymru, said: “With the extension of the vote to 16 and 17-year-olds it’s vital that politicians of all parties engage with young people ahead of next month’s election.

“This hustings will allow a diverse range of young people to directly question key figures within political parties about policies that affect their lives and their futures.

“This election shouldn’t be business as usual.

“With potentially up to 70,000 16 and 17-year-olds being able to vote and a range of other young people and foreign citizens heading to the polls for the first time, parties have to engage with these new voters, listen and demonstrate that their voices are being heard.”