The habits of today’s youth will ultimately be the habits of tomorrow’s mainstream. In 2001, 52 percent of those under 24 voted, a sharp drop from 1997’s 60 percent and 1992’s 68 percent. If half of under-24s aren’t voting, what is going to change to make them vote later in life? Or are we looking at a future in which voting is the exception to the rule?
We often blame disaffection and resentment for apathy. But most young people never come face-to-face with debate or ideas, especially from peers. Without contact with other young people who are themselves engaged in political activism, young people have no way of conceptualising the debates we take for granted.
First-years we recruit today were eleven when there was last a Tory government. They were five when Maggie was toppled, four when the Berlin wall fell. The Falklands war, the miners’ strike and Militant are history, not current affairs. Whilst recruitment has risen in the last few years, we are still only connecting with a small minority at freshers’ fairs.
Imagine if it were the norm rather than the exception that young people left school with some basic political understanding. The government hopes that its citizenship agenda in schools will help to achieve this. I dearly hope that when the citizenship generation hits freshers’ fairs in five years’ time, Labour Students and politics in general will reap the benefits. But it is only a start.
While the habit of voting is important, the habit of voting Labour is crucial. It is our role as Labour Students, and for Young Labour (those party members under the age of 27) to sell our values to our peers. Having a Labour president of the NUS demonstrates that students can come to trust Labour figures. We can get the message across that getting involved means making your voice heard, despite differences with government. Thankfully, students’ unions do a great job of politicising and engaging those young people. Labour clubs strive to encourage it, and build on it within their means. And it is a crucial role - those we recruit today will be the party’s workers, supporters and leaders tomorrow.
But a higher profile and a wider reach for youth sections of political parties to all young people are crucial. Parties are the repositories for political ideas and it isn’t good enough to talk structures to teenagers. We must share ideas.
Single-issue pressure groups can often call on teams of staff funded from donations and government and European grants. Their capacity to educate, inform and train their activists is envied by party-political youth movements. But equally important is their activity in schools. They visit hundreds of sixth forms and the level of understanding among first-year students of their campaigns reflects this. Teachers welcome their ideas and input, and yet are often wary of the input of party politicians.
There is an attraction to single-issue groups for young people, but at the moment political parties aren’t even in the race. Our sister parties across Europe are often far better funded for their youth activities and deliver an enviable level of activism. A few school visits won’t change the culture in Britain. But it’s worth recognising that there is another way.
We have to confront the attitude that political argument takes place ‘not in front of the children’. Too often political ideas are denuded of their party-political context before being presented to young people - as if they risk being sullied by their association with dark arts. Only by getting party politicians, young and old, speaking to more young people will we confront the stereotypes and ignorance.
The party last month launched the Big Conversation, which is exactly such an opportunity. If we want to involve our members and all young people in Britain, then we have to seize such chances to offer real political debate. This is about where we as a country want to be in twenty years time, and for this consultation to be truly effective, we need to be involving the youth of today - because they will be the stakeholders of tomorrow.
Labour has always been better than the other major parties at connecting with young people, and the Big Conversation is another opportunity for us to continue this. Labour Students has more support and more success than any other party-political youth movement. But this is an ambitious party and we owe a duty to our democracy to engage young people in the political process.
While we’ll never turn an entire generation into activists, real political debate amongst their peers might well turn them into voters. Only a step-change in our support for political youth sections will create that. This isn’t a matter simply for parties, it is a matter of public policy and a matter for us all to deal with.