Regular readers & followers will know I'm currently on a leadership programme with UpRising. On Thursday night they held a National Youth Debate across 11 cities in the UK 6-8pm. It was a chance for 16-24 year olds to ask questions to local politicians about topics that matter to them. What the political parties stand for, why you should be voting for them. It was open to anyone, so you didn't have to be part of UpRising to attend. The Liverpool one was held at Camp and Furnace.
On the Liverpool panel we had Louise Ellman - Labour MP for Riverside (we questioned her when we went to London the other week), John Pugh - Lib Dem MP for Southport (he was the other MP we questioned when we went to London), Martin Dobson - Green Party candidate for Riverside, Norsheen Bhatti - Conservative candidate for Walton, Steve Flatman - UKIP candidate & Ciara Brodie - former member of the Youth Parliament for Liverpool. John Pugh was actually late admitting he'd lost his car keys before he set off to get to the venue! His stand in was Paula Keaveney - Lib Dem candidate in Sefton Central. UKIPs initial planned speaker candidate for Wavertree Adam Heatherington had to pull out for health reasons.
It was chaired by BBC Radio Merseyside presenter Roger Phillips.
Roger wasn't very good though, I think he might be a little deaf as every time someone was asking a question he would say speak up, we can't hear you when everyone else could & didn't let me finish what they were saying. I would've chose someone else to be the chair as well as being a presenter for BBC Merseyside most young people wouldn't have had a clue who he was. Someone younger & more well known would have been better.
Roger wasn't very good though, I think he might be a little deaf as every time someone was asking a question he would say speak up, we can't hear you when everyone else could & didn't let me finish what they were saying. I would've chose someone else to be the chair as well as being a presenter for BBC Merseyside most young people wouldn't have had a clue who he was. Someone younger & more well known would have been better.
The first hour was pre set questions with 4 themes - Health, Economy, Education & Employment. This gave all of the panel to have their say on each of the topics, where their party stands for each of these issues.
The conservative MP seemed to be reading a script when she was answering the questions. It was as if David Cameron has written it for her to say. She wasn't really the best representative if I'm being honest with the way she was answering the questions. She even threw a question back at the audience at one point & gave us her life story which was irrelevant.
The next hour was questions from the floor that anyone could ask to the panel. This gave young people the chance to grill the MPs.
Some really interesting & important questions were asked. There was a question about legal aid that was asked to the Green Party but he had to apologise as he couldn't remember their policy for legal aid!
Ciara Brodie was the stand out speaker of the night from the panel, only 16 was the most popular with the crowd. Saying how young people just aren't being represented in politics that it's important for politicians to go to schools to talk to young people & that they are talking but not voting as they don't know enough. She spoke about wanting more creative subjects in schools as once you leave school you don't leave with the skills you need for employment. Young people are important as "we are 100% of the future."
She said afterwards: "It was only when I joined my school council at 14 that I realised there was a platform for young people to be empowered in politics. I was very pleased with the reaction I got. It was refreshing to see so many young faces because I feel we are not very well represented in politics."
UKIP as expected wasn't popular with the crowd getting boos when Steve Flatman spoke about immigration & Britain being part of the EU. At the end there was a large crowd surrounding him but fair play to him for staying at the end to speak to people. Even though we did think he might not leave there alive.
It was a great night with a great turnout with nearly 300 young people turning up! The #MyVoiceMyVote hash tag was trending 3rd in the UK when the biggest news of the day was Zayn leaving One Direction & the Battle for Number 10 with Paxman on at the same time! Well done to Tom Belger (who was on Sunday Politics with me) for organising the event!
I got a photo with Ciara who recognised me & said how good I was on Sunday Politics North West after her being on stage with 5 well spoken MPs! You can still watch it on the iPlayer for the next 15 days HERE (51 minutes in if you want to see me!)
You can see more photos that the "pro" photographer took on the night on Flickr.
You can also follow UpRising on tumblr HERE
The article in the Liverpool Echo HERE
Some really interesting & important questions were asked. There was a question about legal aid that was asked to the Green Party but he had to apologise as he couldn't remember their policy for legal aid!
Ciara Brodie was the stand out speaker of the night from the panel, only 16 was the most popular with the crowd. Saying how young people just aren't being represented in politics that it's important for politicians to go to schools to talk to young people & that they are talking but not voting as they don't know enough. She spoke about wanting more creative subjects in schools as once you leave school you don't leave with the skills you need for employment. Young people are important as "we are 100% of the future."
She said afterwards: "It was only when I joined my school council at 14 that I realised there was a platform for young people to be empowered in politics. I was very pleased with the reaction I got. It was refreshing to see so many young faces because I feel we are not very well represented in politics."
UKIP as expected wasn't popular with the crowd getting boos when Steve Flatman spoke about immigration & Britain being part of the EU. At the end there was a large crowd surrounding him but fair play to him for staying at the end to speak to people. Even though we did think he might not leave there alive.
It was a great night with a great turnout with nearly 300 young people turning up! The #MyVoiceMyVote hash tag was trending 3rd in the UK when the biggest news of the day was Zayn leaving One Direction & the Battle for Number 10 with Paxman on at the same time! Well done to Tom Belger (who was on Sunday Politics with me) for organising the event!
I got a photo with Ciara who recognised me & said how good I was on Sunday Politics North West after her being on stage with 5 well spoken MPs! You can still watch it on the iPlayer for the next 15 days HERE (51 minutes in if you want to see me!)
You can see more photos that the "pro" photographer took on the night on Flickr.
You can also follow UpRising on tumblr HERE
The article in the Liverpool Echo HERE
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