Every so often I hear a young person asking ‘Why should I bother to vote?’ or saying ‘You are all the same anyway?’ or ‘My vote won’t change anything!’
I have learnt to refrain from interrupting them and rambling on about how great the democracy process is and why it is every citizen’s duty to ensure that they vote. Instead I will ask what one thing the young person would change or what is the most important thing to them at this present moment. Many young people feel that ‘Politics’ is not for them or that it is too boring, but I believe it’s the way which we ‘do’ politics that has to change. Politics doesn’t have to be boring, formal and serious all the time.
For me, politics is about making things relevant to people’s lives and giving them the tools to understand how that ‘politics’ can have an impact on their lives. Politics for me is about being honest about the challenges I face as a councillor, sitting on a licensing committee meeting until midnight with local residents working to address the persistent noise nuisance from the nightclub and trying to strike a balance between supporting the residents and local businesses. Politics for me is about the frustration and anger about our chronic housing shortage in Lambeth, but also my willingness to work with colleagues, including politicians from other parties, to lobby for additional investment from the government. Politics for me is the ability to offer work experience and shadowing opportunities for young people so that they have a better understanding and insight into my role as a councillor. Politics for me is laughing out loud when I am explaining to somebody that I am a ‘councillor’ not a ‘counsellor’, but, then again, at times I feel that I need counselling because of the bureaucracy of local government.
Watching the way our prime minister and, to be honest, even some members of the opposition party, behave during prime minister’s question time is enough to put anybody off politics. I will confess that even the barracking and posturing at my own full council meeting is not the best introduction to local democracy for a first time voter. The sad reality is that in the 2013 local elections only 32 per cent of 18-24-year-olds voted, compared with 72 per cent of those aged over 65. We need to ensure that our elected representatives reflect the communities they seek to represent and this includes a diversity of age. Following the general election in 2010, the average age of an MP was 50. According to research from the Local Government Association National Census of Councillors for 2010, the average age of councillors has increased from age 55 in 1997 to age 60 in 2010. I was 25 when I was elected as a councillor in 2006 and some people may argue that this was too young, but I was able to bring a different perspective and my own (if only short) life skills to the contributions and debates with my fellow councillors.
In Lambeth we have an active youth mayor, UK youth parliament member and youth council working with other young people to discuss not just the importance of voting, but playing an active role in shaping and developing policies that are important to other young people. The young people in Lambeth discuss a number of important issues ranging from immigration, housing, the cost of living, transport and unemployment.
Today is national voter registration day and across the country campaigners, celebrities and politicians are working hard to spread the message and encourage young people to register to vote. Registering to vote won’t be a quick fix to address the fact that young people’s interests and concerns are not top of the political agenda, but it will send out a strong message that young people are watching – and they will be the future voters of tomorrow.
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Florence Nosegbe is a councillor in the London borough of Lambeth and is a candidate for Labour’s National Executive Committee. She tweets @flonosegbe
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