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Last week I ended up interviewing Meryl Roberts, the young person who I’d seen speak the week before at the Hansard Society debate. We like doing case studies at work on young people with interesting/inspiring stories and I thought someone who at 22 wanted to be an MP was pretty interesting. You can watch my interview here.
What I found fascinating was that otherwise very pro-youth participation colleagues and friends had quite interesting reactions to Meryl’s interview. One described it as “a little sad”. And I sort of understand where they are coming from.
When the Electoral Commission last looked into Votes at 16 and decided it wasn’t viable, they instead recommended that the age of becoming an MP/councillor be lowered to 18. Their rationale was that there was no logical reason why it should remain at 21. The law was amended accordingly, although given that the youngest MP was 26, it wasn’t as if there was an urgent demand for this change at national level.
Meryl isn’t alone in being someone under the age of 25 who wants to get elected. Emily Benn (granddaughter of Tony and niece of Hilary) must rank as Britain’s youngest PPC (prospective parliamentary candidate), winning nomination to stand for Labour in East Worthing and Shoreham whilst she was still 17 (on the basis that the election would be after her 18th birthday). Admittedly, her constituency is a fairly safe Tory seat, so it’s unlikely she’ll be taking her place in the House of Commons quite yet, but it’s still a pretty impressive achievement.
Not far behind, whilst still at university Claire Hazelgrove got the nod for Labour’s PPC in Skipton and Ripon (Interview with her). However, again it’s a fairly safe Tory seat. And then there is Georgia Gould, the 22-year-old daughter of Lord Gould, who lost her opportunity to be selected for the safe Labour seat in Erith and Thamesmead after accusations of dirty tricks.
That they are all Labour is probably not a coincidence (I’m sure there are some fairly young Lib Dem PPCs, not so sure about the Tories but I’ll try and find out and compile a list at some point. And of course there are no doubt young PPCs from other parties). That two of them are related to existing politicians is perhaps not surprising. That they are all female is rather encouraging.
But, whilst I think there is a real need for diversity in politics, I worry the focus on getting young people through the doors of Westminster misses the point somewhat.
The “professionalisation” of politics has changed the way people become MPs. Traditionally (and I realise this is very generalised), someone would work in another career for several years, get involved in local politics, and eventually get chosen to represent the seat they lived in. Nowadays, it appears that the most recent bunch of MPs and PPCs all appear to have only ever wanted to be MPs. They did politics at university, worked as researchers for MPs or other jobs directly connected to their chosen party, before being dropped into a suitable seat wherever they can get in. They know nothing other than the world of party politics, and forefeit their youth to get to being an MP (as Sarah Teather told the BBC on getting elected).
One young person I know, who has plenty of plaudits and suggestions that he could make high office, is totally happy in the company of older adults but struggles to chat to anyone his age or younger. I shudder and think of 16-year-old William Hague addressing the Tory Party conference in 1977.
And this is the real rub, and where I worry that we’re missing the point about getting young people into elected office. My concern is that politics changes them, not the other way around: that they adapt to be accommodated, not that the system adapts to accommodate them. I jest slightly, but looking at Claire Hazelgrove’s pictures you’d think she only owns a suit and her only friends are other politicians. Where are the PPCs in jeans and trainers? Or, better still, where are the politicians who can skate?
Youngest representatives:
- UK Parliament: Jo Swinson, elected aged 26
- Scottish Parliament: Duncan Hamilton, elected aged 25 (although stood down aged 29)
- Welsh Assembly: Jonathan Morgan, elected aged 25. (Youngest I can find)
- Northern Ireland Assembly: Alaistair Ross, elected aged 26
- Local councillor: William Lloyd, elected aged 18 (from 2007, so that may have been superseded)
Image shows Gordon Brown and members of Hackney Youth Parliament, courtesy of Downing Street. Used under licence.
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If you type the name Darryl Marfo into a search engine, you may find yourself ending up in pretty despicable racist forums. You may well find yourself reading the national newspapers that covered his arrest in April. What you won’t find, unless you specifically look for it, is news that all charges against him have been dropped.
Darryl was the inner-London student, brought up by a single mum, who won a scholarship at the prestigious £25k-a-year Pangbourne College in Hampshire. Not only did Darryl win the scholarship, but he excelled, playing rugby for the England Under 16s team, chairing the school council, helping write the school newspaper and ending up as ‘chief cadet captain’, aka Head Boy.
And then, in April, Darryl was at a house party with other students when some sort of fracas broke out. Darryl was on the end of some racial abuse, apparently from a solider from nearby Aldershot barracks, and allegedly “grabbed a kitchen knife”. No-one was hurt in the incident, but the police were called.
Two people were subsequently arrested as a result of the incident. One of them was Darryl.
I’m not for one moment condoning using any sort of weapon, and I wasn’t there, but “grabbing a kitchen knife” could mean a variety of things. Not surprisingly this turns into ‘pulling out a blade’, ‘brandishing a weapon’ and ‘knife brawl’ for the benefit of good newspaper copy.
Several national papers ran the story (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), and most stated that parents of other children were demanding that Darryl be suspended from the school. A mother was widely quoted telling the Daily Telegraph: “We are paying £25,000 a year to this school and it’s not what we expect.” Another said that parents would be writing to the school’s governors to demand action be taken against Darryl. The school, to its credit, said it wouldn’t take any action until the police investigation had concluded. This was especially important as Darryl would be sitting his A Levels whilst on police bail.
Meanwhile, another student (on condition of anonymity) contacted the local paper in Reading, where the other boy who was arrested lived, demanding that this student was innocent: “In our eyes he was a hero. He should never have been arrested… He was identified by mistake by someone who was not at the party.” An email to Reading’s evening paper (from someone whose sex is known but is not identified) said that the unnamed boy had removed the knife, and stated: “We are proud of what the other Pangbourne pupil did and he should be praised and rewarded.”
But something didn’t stack up with this story. Only the Telegraph made it explicit that it was the other, unnamed boy, who was arrested on the night. Daryl was arrested several days later after he contacted the police about the incident.
And here’s another question: Why was Darryl’s name so freely bandied about (complete with obligatory Facebook photo) when the other boy’s identity was never revealed? Obviously Darryl was the better newsline, but there was no legal reason not to name the other individual, and if it was that easy to get Darryl’s details then it couldn’t have been that difficult to get the name of the other individual? Why did no-one else (not the eyewitnesses, or the people who contacted the local papers, or the concerned mother) want to be identified? Why are the only young people named in any of the newspapers Darryl and his younger brother (who also happens to be at the school)?
And another question: Why were the parents so determined that Darryl should be suspended, but not the other boy who had been arrested? Darryl’s crime was serious, but it also appeared that he had been the victim of racist abuse that night, so surely there were some mitigating circumstances for his alleged actions? There was no suggestion that he had actually threatened anyone with the knife, let alone caused any injury.
And what action, if any, has been taken against the unidentified solider who was responsible for the racist remarks? Why didn’t any newspaper bother itself with investigating this angle? And which of the boys stood up for Darryl against the racist abuse (because they should be named and praised).
I really hope that this is a serious of coincidences, and there is nothing sinister here. But I couldn’t help feel somewhat uncomfortable when I saw the original story, and nothing I’ve seen since has made me feel any better.
Image courtesy of welshwitch36. Used under licence. (The photo has no relevance apart from it was taken in Pangbourne and I quite liked it)
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Yesterday, after work, I headed from where I’m based in Old Street to Westminster to attend the Hansard Society’s debate on the role under 18s have in politics. Given the tube strike, getting there was an achievement in itself, although I was impressed it only took me 45 minutes to walk the three-and-a-half miles.
On the panel were the ever amenable Jo Swinson MP, BYC’s chair Emily Beardsmore, 22-year-old Meryl Roberts, who was shortlisted to be Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate in Keighley (although she wasn’t selected) and 16-year-old Gerald Owusu, who is a activist in his local community as well as MYP for the UKYP.
The debate covered the typical ground of votes at 16, the negative portrayal of young people in the media and by politicians, the low turnout by 18-24 year olds and the fact that only a handful of MPs are under 35 (Jo being the youngest at just shy of 30). Wearing my trustee hat, it was heartening to see many of the young people in the room say that they wanted better citizenship education.
Years ago, when I had the one of my first career wobbles whilst at the BBC, I applied and was interviewed for a job on the education team at the Electoral Commission. I was asked to present my ideas on engaging more young people, and I suggested a website that they could debate and vote on issues. My interviewers nodded in enthusiasm for the idea, but then promptly shot it down because the Electoral Commission can not be involved in anything that could be seen to favour one political party. And whilst I can understand that the regulator needs to remain objective; it seems a little daft that they are the statutory body charged with promoting political engagement. As someone said yesterday, politics is nothing without a difference of opinion.
Like many of these debates, the people in the room were broadly in agreement that something needed to be done, and in the wake of the expenses scandal there is a feeling that now is a good time to seize the opportunity. The debate was on the day Gordon Brown announced he wanted to introduce changes to the electoral system. Unfortunately, as one speaker from the floor passionately pointed out, no-one who could change the situation was in the room to hear this call. And, much that I like supporting these events, it does feel sometimes that we gather in a room, agree something needs to change, and then go back to where we were before.
So what could be done? Well, much that it pains me to say it, young people (and those who support the idea of young people’s greater participation) could learn from the BNP. The BNP managed to secure victories in both the local and European elections; but more than that, they have massively shifted the debate about immigration so that both the Tories and Labour are trying to prove their credentials at being tough on asylum seekers and other migrants.
The greater the number of people who don’t vote, the more power you have if you can get them into a polling station and ticking your box. In the last two (possibly three) elections, had the non-voters had a party to vote for, it would be in government. And if, as many young people claim, they are disenfranchised by existing political parties, that sounds very like the reasons people choose to vote more fringe parties such as the BNP.
Emily Beardsmore said she never wanted to be an MP. But even if she didn’t get elected, the threat that she could be elected by voters who think she will better represent them than other people would be enough to wake up the other parties. And, unlike the BNP, existing politicians couldn’t complain about their fundamentalist undertones. Although they might just try fitting a mosquito to the Houses of Parliament.
So, anyone want to start a political party?
Image artwork by Borf, phot courtesy of After Yesterday. Used under licence.
