Our kids must vote for a better future
Young people with a social conscience must choose Labour
THERE was a major realisation in our house on Wednesday night.
“Wait a minute,” said my 17-year-old son. “There’s an election in June, right?” “Yes, the 8th.” “Hang on, I’ll be 18 then. That means I can vote. I’m voting Labour.”
Phew. (I might have had to donate him to charity otherwise.)
Hopefully, he’s representative of the majority of young voters in possession of a social conscience.
For them, there’s no choice but to vote Labour, even if there are questions over its leadership and whether it can muster up the gravitas to stand on a national – never mind international – stage.
For them, social injustice, the social apartheid rooted in selective education, the fact City bankers are still driving around in Aston Martins purchased by big fat bonuses, that universities have become big businesses more interested in attracting foreign students with deep pockets than providing excellent learning support, that many of their vicechancellors are paid annual salaries upwards of £250,000 while nurses turn to foodbanks to feed their families, are all reasons enough to demand change.
The Prime Minister seems to think this election will be about endorsing her efforts to secure a Hard Brexit, but the majority of young people didn’t want to leave the EU in the first place.
They do, however, want the answers to a long list of questions that affect them now and in the future. Why, for example, do we seem to have the money to cut taxes yet don’t have enough to fund adequate social care or pay teaching assistants a decent wage commensurate with the value they bring to the classroom?
Why is Theresa May about to splash nearly £1billion on her pet grammar schools project when the NHS is on its knees? Why are schools, once nurturers of active, inquisitive minds, now factories featuring a production line full of students who’ve been trained to pass tests and exams rather than to listen, learn, bloom and go forth with the absorption of new knowledge?
Why, with adolescent mental health problems exponentially on the rise, is there next to no funding for pastoral care in schools? Why, with local
health authority child and adolescent mental health services’ waiting lists a mile long and on the increase, is mental health funding not a priority?
Why is PE almost non-existent in some state schools when exercise is vital to physical and mental health? These are all glaring, goading omissions and injustices that are not only allowed, but endorsed.
Our kids face uncertain futures. This week, our teenage girls were named among the least happy and most stressed pupils of the world’s developed nations, with the report’s authors citing the stress of tests as partly to blame.
Our kids deserve to dare to dream of a better future. One where they, rather than the establishment and big business, have the biggest stake in society’s future.
When I was 18, by the way, I was stupid and immature. Labour PM Jim Callaghan was forced to go to the country after he lost a vote of confidence.
I recklessly voted for Margaret Thatcher, because she was a woman and I was angry about sexual discrimination. Probably the worst decision I ever made.
Following the horrors of Brexit and Trump, surely our 18-year-old voters are due a break? Sadly, they’re not spoilt for choice, but if it comes in the shape of Jeremy, it’s better than the alternative.