Letter from Westminster
Doug Naysmith’s column for the Observer (North Bristol and South Gloucestershire editions)
We hear a lot about young people not being interested in politics, so last week I was pleased to get the chance to meet and listen to some of the candidates for the UK Youth Parliament. The UKYP was launched in the House of Commons in July 1999 to give young people a chance to put their views to local and national Government and society at large. The Members of the Youth Parliament (MYPs) are between 11 and 18 and are elected by other young people in their area. They have regular Regional Meetings, an Annual Sitting and discussions with Ministers, the Prime Minister and spokespeople from opposition parties.
Young people from 11 – 18 voted for their MYPs at polling stations in schools and youth centres over ten days in January. Their constituencies are local authority areas and I joined other local MPs to hear the results from South Gloucestershire while my assitant attended the count in Bristol. I was impressed with the manifestos from the all the candidates, with issues including the environment, safety at night, disability issues and bullying.
I was delighted that two young people from my Constituency, Namritha Ramanujam from Patchway Community College, and Jenny Mullinder from Portway Community School were elected to the Parliament to represent South Gloucestershire and Bristol areas, and Isaac Kim from Shirehampton was one of the runners-up and will act as a deputy. Namritha, who is 12, told me that she had been a bit apprehensive about standing as a candidate but was now looking forward to carrying out her manifesto pledges. Namritha is committed to improving links between young people and others in the community such as the police and the council, while Jenny wants to provide better access to the arts for young people in Bristol. Both Jenny and Namritha highlighted bullying as one of the issues that most concern young people.
I have always supported the Government’s commitment to Citizenship education and am pleased that it seems to bearing fruit, with young people now more interested in and informed about our democratic system. I look forward to welcoming Namritha and Jenny to Westminster. Perhaps one day they will be back there as MPs.
