Multi-party Politics - The Political Youth
- Katharyn Daniels
- Mar 17, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 9, 2019
“We need young people with bright ideas and fresh energy to shake the political establishment out of its complacency.”
Politics is a turbulent thing. Views and opinions can change from one day to the next. You only have to spend a few moments reading about the current Brexit votes in Parliament to see that the situation can change at the drop of a hat.
To demonstrate just how quickly politics can move on, Taboo spoke to two young Conservatives for this article in February 2019. By mid-March they had both left the Conservative Party.
Politics is also very controversial for something that is so present in our everyday lives and impacts everything - from the quality of the roads we drive on, to how the country stands on the international stage. There is a myriad of political ideologies across the UK, and each one is bound to cause controversy amongst those whose views differ.
Young people involved in politics can also cause a stir. You could argue that there has and always will be some form of age divide, but since Brexit this seems to have been exacerbated in Britain. Some younger people have expressed annoyance that their elders did not vote in a way that took young people into account, while terms like "millennial" and "snowflake" are sometimes used by older generations to insult young voters.
Seth Goddard and Oliver Broadhurst are both second year Politics and International
Relations students at the University of Lincoln and part of the University of Lincoln Conservative Society, Seth as President. Until a few weeks ago they were also both Conservative Party members.
Seth had described himself as a dry paternalist Conservative, believing in a nanny state and being a “realist” in terms of foreign policy, while putting the family first: “that’s it for me really, my whole political motivation is that families have a better time.” He now aligns himself with the Greens.
Oliver, despite a dislike of labels, put himself more in the libertarian camp, believing in freedom: “people need choice and the ability to make their own decisions.” He too has since left the party and now aligns himself with a libertarian ideology.
They cite a “plethora” of reasons for leaving the party, however: “the main one is generally ideology and policy drifts, taking our specific views to their logical conclusions.”
Bradley Allsop is a PhD student at the University of Lincoln and currently Social Secretary for the University of Lincoln Labour Society.
He supports Labour because he thinks that socialism is “desperately” needed in the UK. He argues that Labour is: “the best hope our generation has of a fairer, brighter future.”
While it is thought that young people largely do not get involved in politics, and voting turnout for 18-24 year olds is historically a lot lower than other age groups, there are groups of young people who are passionate about the topic. Even if not through voting, the recent
Climate Strikes have been proof of young people being active over issues they care about.
However, abuse and insults aimed at people with different political viewpoints are not uncommon.
All three students have faced backlash for voting the way they do. Bradley said: “You need to develop a bit of a thick skin if you’re involved in politics – the issues we debate are important and people get passionate about them.”
However he also expressed feeling “frustration” when people dismiss him as “naive for being young and left wing".
But ultimately the backlash makes him more "determined" to be involved in politics.
Despite coming from different political backgrounds and having different viewpoints, Seth and Oliver have similar experiences.
Seth said: “Personally I find that I can find common ground with someone. But I’ve had plenty of backlash from people. It’s often people who aren’t willing to sit down and have that conversation, who aren’t willing to listen, whose minds are already made up. But unfortunately, those voices are the ones who shout the loudest.”
He added: “It frustrates the hell out of me when people aren’t even willing to sit down and listen.”
While people on all sides of the political spectrum can face abuse, being a young Conservative seems to result in more backlash, due to a seemingly anti-Conservative feeling amongst many young people, particularly students. From hurling the word “tory” around as an insult, to reports of young Conservative voters hiding their political persuasion because of embarrassment. Seth picked up on this point.
“The only problem I do have with the current youth culture is it does assume that Conservatives are evil, that they genuinely want to hurt people. That’s rubbish. No one enters politics because they’re malicious.”
Similarly though, this backlash does not put these young people off politics. Oliver said: “If anything, it makes me love it more.”
Bradley feels that the more young people involved in politics, the better: “The world is at a crossroads, wealth inequality, mental health and climate change are all at crisis levels. As dry and dusty as politics can be, it’s the only way we can solve these issues - together.
“We need young people with bright ideas and fresh energy to shake the political establishment out of its complacency.”
At the end of the day, surely it matters more that young people are playing an active role in their future than the party they are championing? As we’ve seen, values and opinions can change and forming your own core political identity is an important step – even if it requires switching political allegiance.
Young people being involved in politics is important, whether this means joining school protests or student societies – and they shouldn’t be dismissed because they are young. After all, the young people of today will be leading the country in the future.
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