Time to turn on our bored young voters
WE’RE all agreed on something about this General Election, apart from it being about as welcome as a re-commissioning of The Nightly Show.
Young people need to lay down their iPhones and register to vote to make the UK a more balanced, representative democracy. To drag their apathetic backsides from couches to polling booths, as more than 60% of them did as recently as 1997.
Which sounds great. Had as many 18 to 24-year-olds voted as pensioners did two years ago, David Cameron probably wouldn’t have won and we wouldn’t be where we are today. Scrambling down the back of the Treasury couch to find £80billion to pay for a divorce half of us don’t want.
But what are we doing to ensure it happens? I don’t see any intelligent efforts to seduce the young into becoming politically aware, just a lot of gruesome sights insulting their intelligence and sending them back to Game Of Thrones.
Theresa May, standing on the steps of Downing Street weaponising their futures by starting a phoney war with Europe as she tries to sound like Thatcher’s and Churchill’s love child. Telling 500 million people in 27 countries, who have better things to do, that she wants to fight them on the beaches with her handbag. Offering no policies for youngsters, well for anyone really, just the pledge that if she wins we’ll all live in a strong stable. Which reeks of horse dung. This is the generation, lectured about being the least likely one to be hired at interview because they can’t do basic maths, hearing a Shadow Home Secretary unable to do just that. Yet Diane Abbott is auditioning for the second biggest job in the country. They’re no doubt watching angry pensioners on the TV news berating party leaders like Tim Farron for having the gall to mess with their futures by wanting another EU referendum, and thinking “not your future, pal, mine, so leave him alone.” Then realising Farron leads the Lib-Dems, who lied about raising tuition fees so is probably lying again, and dropping any sympathy. They hear Labour offer all OAPs triple lock security on their pensions when their age group gets no offers of any security from anyone, because they’re not worth bribing (I’ve nothing against OAPs getting triple lock security, but only the poorest who need to put a triple lock on their door to stop druggies burgling what little they’ve got). They see the deceitful posters, hear the phoney soundbites, think back to the last election and the referendum and realise it’s legalised lying so why bother?
They’re told they live in a modern, media-savvy age, but their Prime Minister won’t take part in a TV debate to let them judge her. They probably recall this time last year, the BBC hosting a live debate on issues affecting young voters. A debate addressed by a panel of politicians whose average age was five months shy of 60.
As one 21-year-old yelled at the likes of Alex Salmond and Alan Johnson: “I have no idea what to do and I blame you lot entirely for that.”
Well, here’s an idea. If we really care about making politics relevant to 18-24s, why aren’t the broadcasters holding live studio debates where that age group makes up the audience. And a panel of 20-something MPs (13 entered the Commons in 2015), youthful celebrities, journalists and experts take their questions and try to explain why their vote matters.
Because right now too many young people believe nothing good came out of the last General Election and referendum, so why should it be any different this time.
Until we answer that, don’t knock their apathy.
They hear the phoney soundbites and think, why bother?