THE BIG ISSUE

Far from being turned off by the mess that is Brexit, young voters are turning out in ever increasing numbers, argues Iain Dale

Is politics broken?

We keep being told that our body politic is broken and that young people especially have been turned off by the way our political system works. There’s a word for that view: bollocks.

Young people may not be enthused by Westminster party politics, but have they ever been? No.

Having said that, Jeremy Corbyn has attracted a new generation of young people into the Labour Party, and, through Momentum, they have eff ectively become his storm troopers. Margaret Thatcher achieved the same for the Tories in the 1980s.

Young people may not like the shenanigans that take place in the House of Commons, and they may not join the old political parties, but they’re certainly engaged in single issues such as LGBTQ rights, and look at the support for the climate change strikes in schools in recent weeks. This is a new kind of political activism.

I present a current aff airs show on LBC Radio. If I tell you that we have a

higher listenership in the 15- 24 age demographic than most popular music stations, you’ll understand why I believe young people are engaged in politics in a way that they weren’t even 10 years ago.

I get 15 year olds phoning in. Our videos on Facebook have reached out to a new generation, and it means, unlike 5 Live or Radio 4, we’re attracting new, younger listeners.

Older people have complained for decades that young people don’t turn out to vote in local or national elections. In the Brexit referendum, 64 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds who were registered did vote, and that fi gure rose to 65 per cent among those aged between 25 and 39. In the 2017 general election the turnout among the youngest age group was also 64 per cent, the highest since 1992 — up from 43 per cent in 2015. The fi gure was just seven per cent 10 years before that.

I have little doubt that if there was another general election this year, or a second Brexit referendum, that fi gure would rise to more than 70 per cent.

Brexit may have divided the generations but it has also led to some fascinating conversations between twinks and crinklies.

In some cases, these dialogues have been divisive but in others it has enabled a bit more cross-generational understanding. In the end, if we want to protect individual rights, and indeed enhance them, everyone has apart to play.

We’ re not all street-filling agitators, and we don’t all have the individual drive of people such as Peter Tatchell, but the democratisation of the media gives us all a voice — even if all we do is sign an online petition or like something on Facebook.

Twenty years ago, the only media outlet that we had to register a voice in was to write a letter to the local newspaper. Today, all sorts of avenues are open to us. We can contact politicians directly and engage with them — well, some of them – on Twitter and the like.

We have a voice, but the challenge remains to ensure that these voices are listened to. So, while I believe that the Westminster system needs modernising and mending, I don’t believe politics as a whole is broken. Younger generations may be very suspicious of the older generations’ ability to govern and improve the quality of life for the whole nation, but there ’ s nothing new in that. It was ever thus.

The big change is that nowadays there are so many opportunities for younger generations to get involved and affect change, both on a local and a national level — opportunities that weren’t there even as recently as 20 years ago. So take up the challenge. Choose your issue and you too can be the change.

“Young people are certainly engaged. This is a new kind of activism”