The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Independence poll the
What inspires young people to take the plunge into politics? This was one question we put to the 35 who make up Generation Next...
Cailyn McMa h o n moved to Scotland in the summer of 2014, with the South Africa-born teenager swapping Dubai for Dalgety Bay.
Now 20, the Glasgow University student is the national convener of the Yo u n g Scots for Independence, previously known as the SNP Youth.
“It was 2014, the year of the referendum. That was 100% what got me involved, especially coming from Dubai, where it is obviously not a democracy – I’d never seen an election,” she said.
“I remember actually being 14 and having to Google what a referendum was.
“I d i d n’ t really get involved, but because the voting age was lowered for the first time and everyone was talking about it at school, I assumed everyone in Scotland was really political and had a really sound knowledge of the political world.
“So, I was like, ‘ right, well, I b e tt e r do my research’. And fast-forward a couple of months and I was determined I was going to join the SNP as soon as I could.”
In Dundee, the majority of Graeme McKenzie’s family and classmates at Menzieshill High were voting Yes, but the young Labour activist held a different view.
Mr McKenzie, who is now 22 and hopes to be the
Labour candidate in Dundee City East next year, said: “That’s really what spurred it (his interest in politics).
“Because obviously the debate about the independence referendum had come around and I had staunchly said that I was a No voter from when that first came around.
“I think I was one of three No voters who were eligible to vote at school, so I got quite a bit of stick for it, as you can imagine. I was in the minority, at school.”
Mr McKenzie could end up standing in Dundee City East against 21- year- old Liberal Democrat Michael Crichton, who was a pupil at Grove Academy in
Broughty Ferry during the referendum.
“My first real involvement in any political activity was when I was at school and I saw the way the referendum was going,” he said.
“I wasn’t even old enough to vote, I was turning 16 two months after the vote, but I phoned the Better Together campaign the night before the referendum polls opened and said, ‘I need to help out’.
“Because I s aw the upward trajectory of the Yes campaign and thought I needed to help out, so I was on the polling station for the Better Together campaign in Barnhill, Dundee.”
Mr Crichton added: “I’ve
always wanted to become involved in politics. To become the MP or MSP or elected parliamentarian? I suppose that really came to me when I was 15. It was probably the referendum.”
Callum Purves, who is a councillor in Perth and Kinross and works as a campaign manager for the Conservative Pa r ty, is another who was motivated by the referendum.
“The first proper political campaigning that I did, and I think it would be similar with a lot of people my age, and even in older people now who have just come into politics, was during the Scottish independence referendum,” he said.
“Because that was something that I cared very much about and was very passionate about, making
sure Scotland remained in the United Kingdom.
“That was where I started doing work on street stalls and delivering leaflets and things like that.”
Mr Pur ves was at St Andrews University at the same time as Dominic Nolan, who now serves as a Conservative councillor in Fife.
“Wh e n I arrived at university, my first year,
that was 2014, and the referendum was taking place at that time and I got involved over that summer and campaigned with Better Together,” he said.
“Shortly after the referendum, I joined the Conservatives because they seemed to be the party that most strongly championed the union.
“They always seemed to be the natural choice for
me but it was only after the referendum that I finally got the push to join the party and became very interested in politics.”
Dunfermline-based Mags Hall will be second on the regional list in Mi d Scotland and Fife for the Scottish Greens next year.
She said: “Like a lot of people my generation, it was 2014 and the
independence referendum that really brought me into mainstream politics, and party politics in particular.
“I joined the Greens the day after the independence referendum, like a lot of people, trying to turn the disappointment of the indyref into a positive action.”
Scott Rutherford, a fellow Green who is also a former
and future candidate in Fife, said: “I was crushed af ter that referendum result.
“I was thinking, I sort of feel like my future has been kicked in the teeth a bit, so I’m going to get involved in politics.
“I’m not going to accept austerity, I’m not going to accept a minimum wage that isn’t enough to scratch a living.”