A voice from the floor
A warm welcome from Huw Merriman jarred us with the fact that the 23rd of June would be ‘the most important vote of a generation, when the truth was that most of our views simply wouldn’t matter. They wouldn’t matter because we simply couldn’t vote. However, our local MP was on site and willing to listen to our views in our very own EU Debate.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the first questions to come up was, ‘why are young people not allowed to vote?’ Despite Jeremy Corbyn’s campaigns to lower the voting age in this referendum, under 18s are still a part of the population who are unrepresented. Although arguments could say that we are simply apathetic as a demographic, and have no experience of the real world to have our own political views, I believe the students attending surely proved those statements wrong.
Our two panels campaigning ‘Remain’ and ‘Leave’ both exerted their individual arguments surefootedly, Remain reminding us of the benefits of free movement, free trade and European peace and stability, while Leave argued that ‘we spend 35m on the EU a day,’ where people are ‘handed back 40% and told how to spend it,’ and claiming that, ‘when the EU sneezes, the NHS catches a cold,’ to reinforce their opinions. This knowledge expressed by the panels explicitly showed that we had enough understanding of the issue and its repercussions to make our own decision on the 23rd of June, regardless of our age. But the sad thing is, despite our knowledge and enthusiasm for democracy, we are still suppressed by the whims of the status quo.
To say we are apathetic as an entity is simply ‘dog-whistle’ politics in itself. Every student attending had their own viewpoint, their own understanding, and expressed their own interest. Various crises were brought into question by the audience covering topics ranging from the economy to xenophobia, and answered expertly by the panel members. The fact that our own representatives in Westminster silence us is iniquitous, especially when issues such as the EU referendum would have the greatest impact on our futures.
Personally, I would like to thank Huw Merriman for allowing us some avenue of political participation. He has given us some influence over our future through our EU debate, as our voices would hopefully be heard and represented through his own vote.
Milly Dawson, Year 12
Perhaps unsurprisingly, one of the first questions to come up was, ‘why are young people not allowed to vote?’ Despite Jeremy Corbyn’s campaigns to lower the voting age in this referendum, under 18s are still a part of the population who are unrepresented. Although arguments could say that we are simply apathetic as a demographic, and have no experience of the real world to have our own political views, I believe the students attending surely proved those statements wrong.
Our two panels campaigning ‘Remain’ and ‘Leave’ both exerted their individual arguments surefootedly, Remain reminding us of the benefits of free movement, free trade and European peace and stability, while Leave argued that ‘we spend 35m on the EU a day,’ where people are ‘handed back 40% and told how to spend it,’ and claiming that, ‘when the EU sneezes, the NHS catches a cold,’ to reinforce their opinions. This knowledge expressed by the panels explicitly showed that we had enough understanding of the issue and its repercussions to make our own decision on the 23rd of June, regardless of our age. But the sad thing is, despite our knowledge and enthusiasm for democracy, we are still suppressed by the whims of the status quo.
To say we are apathetic as an entity is simply ‘dog-whistle’ politics in itself. Every student attending had their own viewpoint, their own understanding, and expressed their own interest. Various crises were brought into question by the audience covering topics ranging from the economy to xenophobia, and answered expertly by the panel members. The fact that our own representatives in Westminster silence us is iniquitous, especially when issues such as the EU referendum would have the greatest impact on our futures.
Personally, I would like to thank Huw Merriman for allowing us some avenue of political participation. He has given us some influence over our future through our EU debate, as our voices would hopefully be heard and represented through his own vote.
Milly Dawson, Year 12