Soon after Mhairi Black was selected as the youngest member of UK parliament in 200 years, she was interviewed by Channel 4 news as she headed towards her new place of work and asked her thoughts on the palace of Westminster. The interviewer said ‘David Cameron said that Parliament felt like a school to him. Do you think this will feel like a school to you?’ Mhairi smiled. ‘My school was a bit different to David Cameron's, I think.’
Few people manage to achieve what Mhairi did at such a young age. Although many distinguished politicians began their careers as the ‘baby of the house’, that does not disguise the fact that more generally, young people are not engaged in politics. The process is convoluted, its structures archaic, and its reputation as bureaucratic as ever.
How can we stimulate young people's interest in the decisions that will shape their lives? How do we give them the license to challenge authority and engage in debate?
One solution is Vote For Me, which is currently touring schools across the north west. It's an interactive one-man performance created by Glitch Theatre's artistic director, Samuel Erskine – who admits that he didn't find politics accessible until university.
While studying on the applied theatre and community drama degree at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, he was introduced to the pedagogy of the oppressed – an ideology based on Paulo Freire's book of the same name – and the idea that understanding the nature of one's oppression might lead to freeing yourself from it. This was his lightbulb moment.
Perfect politics
The project he created educates students about how politics works, and prompts them to challenge the status quo. During an interactive workshop, a classroom of students is invited to stand against Mr Smile – a character of questionable values – in a forthcoming election.
In the process, young people face the challenge of building an MP piece by piece – what beliefs they should hold, what they should stand for, and what tools they need to facilitate their plans.
One thing that Erskine says shocks students most is the fact that running as an MP only requires you to be over 18 and eligible to vote. One question that Erskine invariably finds young people in favour of, is lowering the voting age to 16. If they can join the army, why shouldn't they be able to vote? Erskine agrees, but only if supported by a comprehensive education programme.
Diary permitting, Erskine invites local politicians to attend the school to answer questions. Across the board, those policy makers who have taken part have been stunned at the quality and confidence of the students' questions, lending credence to Erskine's theory that a little knowledge of the rules of engagement, and a relevant cause to fight for, can make a huge impact.
That's what happened to Mhairi Black. While studying politics at the University of Glasgow, she got involved in the Scottish independence referendum, and went on to challenge a Labour incumbent. Vote for Me is not aiming to create a generation of politicians but to actively engage young people in the process of democracy, so that they might feel empowered to speak out where they find injustice, and challenge authority on the grounds of what they believe.
Vote for Me is party-neutral, and encourages students to divorce the policies from the personality. After all, in our celebrity driven culture, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson might look like a good bet for president, but what are his policies?
The target age group is Year 6, but Glitch Theatre has delivered bespoke projects for adults, at festivals, and even in probation centres. On release from prison the right to vote is reinstated, so probation centres have been a fascinating setting to explore the resumption of full citizenship.
Mhairi Black's achievement should be an inspiration to young people everywhere that if you have belief then you can achieve anything. She was asked if she ever felt daunted about the job she was undertaking. This was her response:
‘During the campaign, folk were asking me – do you not feel intimidated, do you not feel quite nervous? And I think with some of the policies that have been put upon the poorest in our society just now, I'm not the one who should be nervous.’
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An interactive website which allows users to assess policies free from party influence voteforpolicies.org.uk
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Mhairi Black interviewed on Women in the World tinyurl.com/td-vfm