It is undeniable that the EU Referendum stirred up quite a fuss and caused disruptions throughout the United Kingdom during 2016, when there became a discussion on the impending withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union. It is also undeniable that over the years, young people have been extremely quiet and disengaged when it comes to partaking in political votes, which could be partly based on the fact you as young people are unaware of how crucial and important it is for you all to get involved and take charge of your futures. Because of this, the United Nations used all platforms to broadcast the referendum to pursued you all to go to your local polling stations so your voices can be heard.
Historically 18-24-year olds have been the lowest participating age to vote at the polling stations than any other age demographics. The disengagement of youth participation in politics has been a reoccurring issue over the years as they are the group that will be most affected by the outcome of each election that takes place. Me, myself, I have experienced years of voting, as I have been eligible to vote since the age of 18, and as a young adult myself, I have constantly felts let down by the political system as if feels as though I have been given a voice that is ultimately ignored due to the high volume of older/elderly voters. Young people are not given are fair shot at creating a future for themselves, our vote is our voice and not all young people are eligible to have a voice (due to factors such as age) (The Guardian 2014) although we will have the most to either gain or loose by the results of the general election.
Young people should be put at the heart of the momentum, after all, we are the future of this country. Leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn is not a traditional labour politician, he represents something young and new, using social media platforms and celebrity endorsements to appeal to, and target the younger generations to get onboard and vote for the labour campaign (Young, L., 2018). But has this strategy worked? According to Ipsos MORI, in 2017 shown in the graph above, there had been an increase in 18-24-year-old voters at 62%, which is a significant increase compared to the 2015 general election, whereby only 43% of young people voted. Corbyn’s use of social media to appeal to his target market was extremely smart, as social media platforms are widely used amongst the younger generation, it allowed to labour party to gain new followers, who are likely to continue to vote for the same party, which enables a reshape in British elections.
grime artist JME with labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
As shown in the graph, there was a high number of 18-24-year-old labour voters compared the other parties. This conveys that when young people are inspired to vote, they will take the opportunity to have their voice be heard. Targeting young people with the use of social media and celebrity endorsements such as London’s very own grime artists Stormzy and JME helped sparked a ‘youthquake’ (BBC News 2018). As a young adult myself, from London, seeing celebrities from a similar background to my own, support the labour party made myself, and I’m sure other young people feel as though labour party polies genially cared about the future of young people. Due to the high number of young labour voters, compared to other parties it could be argued that this is due to parties failing to use social media platforms and forms of propaganda to appeal to the younger generation, which could have contributed to the loss of voters.
As previously stated, Jeremy Corbyn was seen to be particularly popular amongst the younger generation, with the use of celebrity influence and social media, which resulted in an unexpectedly good result. using BES data, it enables us to analyse the relationship between age and turnout at both the 2015 and 2017 general elections. In both elections, older people were the main voters amongst all participants, showing minimal change between 2015 and 2017, although this may be the case, there is no denying, that although they may be a small shift in the number of young voters, there has been an increase during the last general election (British Election Study 2017), which could encourage more young people to take matters into their own hands by voting so that they have the opportunity to have the future that they desire instead of having laws in favour of the elder citizens, After all it will be the young that will face the consequences of the party that is elected.
Prior to the election for the referendum, the labour leader Jeremey Corbyn tweeted that he had voted to remain in the EU, this conveyed what his party stood for. It is likely that most young people were fully aware of what Brexit was about, and the changes that would come with it, encouraging most to vote for labour and to remain in the EU as there would rather stick with what they know rather than the face the fear of the unknown (Ipsos MORI 2016)
Bibliography
BBC News 2018 ‘The myth of the 2017 ‘youthquake’ election’ (available: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42747342 accessed 19th February 2019)
British Election Study (2017) “The Myth of 2017 Youthquake Election” (Available: http://www.britishelectionstudy.com/bes-impact/the-myth-of-the-2017-youthquake-election/#.WozXLqhl_IU accessed on 20th February 2019)
Ipsos Mori (2017) “How the voters voted in the 2017 General Election” (Available: https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/2017-06/how-britain-voted-in-the-2017-election_2.pdf Accessed: 19th February 2019)
Ipsos MORI (2016) Who’ll win the European referendum? It all depends on the young. (available at https://www.ipsos.com/ipsos-mori/en-uk/wholl-win-european-referendum-it-all-depends-young accessed 19th February 2019)
The Guardian (2014) ‘The UK isn’t ready to lower the voting age to 16’ (available at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/10/uk-voting-age-16-youth-politics accessed on 20th February 2019)
Young, L., (2018) Rise: How Jeremy Corbyn Inspired the Young to Create a New Socialism. Simon and Schuster.