Young people and political engagement
What will British Youths and political engagement equal to?
Throughout the history of politics, young people embraced and expressed their opinion that the British people (in particular politicians) find difficult to accept and digest. A similar pattern of expression is identified in the 2017 general election. Only this time on a larger scale, where young people have actively increase their engagement and maintained further understanding of their political knowledge. However there is much more discussion around the importance and the value of the british youth are living in the UK.
As well as having an increase in youth political engagement, how are the government responding to this? So far it’s safe to say that British youth plus politics equals to, political progress. Here are the reasons why I stand behind young people and political engagement as an important stage for progressing.
One reason for this political “equation” to equal progress, would be due to the amount of influence young people provide among the masses of the british population. Whether this is in the creative industries, social media and other assets of society, young people naturally have the power to change and create movement. The youth influence is generated, through the way society offers a chance to voice your opinion. For young people to occupy this amount of power within the political sector of society, allows the government to gather up more direct and effective change to the social environment we collectively live in. Which can be attentive to the needs of the majority of the population, living in the UK.
Considering the fact that young people will be dominantly affected, (due to the younger generation leading the future generation) compared to the current British elderly generation , why does politics seem to ignore this? It seems as though political policies can be blinded to focus on avenues, that completely ignore the youth or formulate deceptions to gain more votes from. I am especially referring to the former Lib dem party leader Nick Clegg and the tuition fees scandal. Deceiving the youth and individuals who are keen to attend University, either encourages more political engagement or automatically
Appendix A
The graph (appendix a) displayed above, not only highlights the voting age group but establishes the amount of votes, each party received during the 2017 elections.
As the years increase, there has become more importance behind the value of voting in democratic society. In Britain the elections that took place back in 2017, was evidently reaching out towards the young masses (Considering the outcome will affect the young population the most) The amount of engagement increased and has left members in society wondering….should the voting age be brought down to 16 yrs old. Debates have sparked up, questioning if 16 yrs olds will allowing more young people to feel included and increase their amount of activity for political engagement. Considering the fact that over 1.5million of 16 and 17 are denied voting, they deserve the opportunity to be be heard.
For the young generation today, there has been an increase in the engagement in politics. Considering there has been a decrease British youth votes from 1992, which was at 67% at the time. Between 1997-2015 British young votes were turning out below 55%. It is safe to say that British youth are becoming aware of the importance of the correlation between politics and their future environment. It was the 2017 general election that shook the british nation. Due to the increase of british youth votes, with over 64% of young people turning out to vote. So why is this? Why now? Why is there an obvious increase behind young people voting in Britain?
Movements such as “YouthQuake” has evidently made an impact on the rest of the British nation and Politics. Their approach has not only been beneficial in helping engage young people with politics but has outlined the concerns that young people in Britain face. Politicians such as Jeremy Corbyn, is also responsible for engaging young people during the 2017 general election. Working with artists such as “Stormzy” a well known modern grime artist, who remains popular among the youth.
Appendix B
Over all the youth of today are more opposed to the generic approach from politics,which engages more votes from an older generation. Despite politicians not having the intention to focus only on older votes, the general election of 2017 clearly highlighted that there need to be a shake up in the way politics engages with the British youth of today.Hopefully this “shake up” could generate a new perspective and framework of youths and an increase their political engagement.
Bibliography:
Curtis.C (2017) How Britain voted at the 2017 general election, Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/06/13/how-britain-voted-2017-general-election/(Accessed: 11/03/18 ).
Loughrey.C (2017) ‘Stormzy calls Theresa May a paigon as he accepts a GQ award from Jeremy Corbyn’, The Independent , 6th September, p
Sanghani.R (2017) ‘Goodbye Nick Clegg, students never forgave you for tuition fees’, The Telegraph, 9th June, p. .
Stewart.M (2018) ‘Yes, there was a “youthquake” in the 2017 snap election – and it mattered’, New Statesman, 5th Feburary, p. .
Votes at 16 (2016) We want our political system to recognise the abilities of 16 year olds, Available at: http://www.votesat16.org/about/ (Accessed: 03/03/18 ).