Youth politicians debate in Commons

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The leader of the House of Commons has claimed that Members of Parliament could "learn a great deal" from their younger counterparts, as the UK Youth Parliament convenes in Westminster.

Speaking at UKYP's third annual sitting in the House of Commons, Sir George Young praised the attitude and commitment of the assorted Members of the Youth Parliament (MYPs) and argued that many of the youth parliamentarians would one day be sitting on the green benches as MPs.

Young, attending the sitting along with his shadow counterpart, Angela Eagle, spoke at the start of a day's worth of debates from the UK Youth Parliament to determine their national campaign for the next year.

Debates conducted in the morning session focused on tuition fees, public transport and the adoption of a zero-tolerance attitude to bullying.

Kicking off the debate in favour of the motion, 'No to tuition fees, yes to graduate tax', Harrison Carter (Yorkshire & Humber) contended that the graduate tax would go directly to universities, bypassing the Treasury's pockets.

He dubbed others "naive" for wanting to not give something back for an education from which they would ultimately benefit.

Carter spoke of the country's duty to educate its citizens and criticised the recent nine per cent drop in university applications ahead of next year's fee rises.

Speaking against the motion was Alex Huston, an MYP from Northern Ireland.

Huston called both tuition fees and a graduate tax "wrong", but noted that graduates could expect to receive £100,000 more over the course of their working lives.

And he highlighted that his generation did not cause the economic crisis, calling on each MP to pay for their degree.

Huston said: "Ed Miliband should stop whinging, his party introduced tuition fees; David Cameron is used to paying for his education; and Nick Clegg promised to scrap tuition fees – how did that go?"

Moving the motion 'Make public transport cheaper, better and accessible for all', Jamie Davies, an MYP from the South East, said that transport "forms a pillar in the lives of young people".

He contrasted young people with the elderly in society who benefit from free bus passes, and called on fellow representatives to help improve the lives of eight million young people across the UK.

Opposing the motion was Maria Neary, a South West MYP. She argued that this is "not an area for younger people to solve". At present, she argued, transport is not right for a national campaign, given the various local factors involved.

The morning's debates were rounded off with a discussion on zero tolerance of school bullying.

David Crone (North East), speaking in favour, emphasised his belief that hostility is not genetic or hereditary, and that it instead stems from ignorance.

Equality would only be attained through education, he contended, and was critical that incidents that would not be acceptable in wider society were accepted in a school environment.

In opposition to the motion, Xavier Cohen said that the UK was already aware of bullying, with England, Wales and Northern Ireland requiring schools to have a statutory code of conduct for bullying.

And he criticised the motion for being based on a dangerous assumption – that victims will tell people – citing a poll which said 30 per cent of 10-14 year-olds were too scared to tell anyone when they were bullied.

The UK Youth Parliament sitting was attended by a cross-party selection of MPs, including Simon Hughes, Natascha Engel and Tim Loughton.