“A view from a disenfranchised youth”

When this magazine’s editor wrote a TV review about politics, Ella Marshall wrote a letter to protest its tone: “Next time you want to publish an article with consideration towards young people, I suggest you let one of us write it”. So we did. Here’s what Ella, 16 – and a Youth MP– had to say on behalf of those too young to vote

* Give us our vote. Lower the voting age to 16 and re-engage young people with the governance of our country. Sixteen is the age at which we may pay tax, are able to have sex and sign up to the military and yet we’re not mature enough for the basic human right to contribute to democracy? Don’t be afraid of amplifying our youthful, and possibly more alternative, political opinions.

* Education shouldn’t be used as a political football. If you do reform schools further, it must be a method by which you can help us grow into rounded human beings, rather than a labour force worn down by our own target grades before the age of 16. We need a curriculum for life. This means professionals visiting schools who are able to teach us about both the physical and emotional aspects of sex. And please stop putting merciless amounts of pressure on our hard-working and dedicated teachers.g

* Hands off the NHS. Government officials who are rich enough to afford private healthcare have been progressively selling off sections of our most essential public service for the past five years. There is no way that moving towards a more privatised system will benefit anybody, other than the privatisers.

* We want less “long-term economic plan” and more “ordinary lives matter”. Every 11 minutes, a family in Britain find themselves homeless and yet, according to the Office for National Statistics, there are over a million empty homes in England and Wales. The richest 1 per cent of people have the same wealth as 55 per cent of the population. We, as young people, are taught about the importance of paying tax and contributing to society and yet there seems to be a different standard for the financial elite.

From the same article below:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/caroline-lucas-reveals-10-things-no-one-tells-you-before-you-first-enter-parliament-10149138.html

One thought on ““A view from a disenfranchised youth”

  1. Just what Lib Dems have been proposing for some time at various levels of local government.

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