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SIXTEEN YEAR OLDS have expressed their want to vote in this year’s Mayor’s Q&A during Local Democracy Week, last Wednesday 14 October.
Around 60 students from Hackney schools, aged 16 and 17, took part in a discussion with the panellists from Town Hall, Youth Parliament and the Met Police on the big issues facing young people today in the borough. Issues included pay inequality, gentrification, diversity, crime and safety, and the right to vote.
Panellists included: Mayor of Hackney Jules Pipe; Deputy Mayor Cllr Sophie Linden; UK Youth Parliament and Hackney Youth Parliament Member Beth Foster-Ogg; Head of Young Hackney Pauline Adams; and Hackney Borough Commander Simon Laurence.
One history student said: “Future generations will judge society today as “ridiculous for not allowing 16 and 17-year-olds to vote”.
Another said: “We need the vote because politicians are not going to do what’s best for us, they’re going to do what’s best for those aged 18 and over.”
Other students were thinking the complete opposite, as they explained they weren’t ready or informed enough to vote. One schoolboy also said that peer pressure could prevent independent voting.
Yet the debate responded to that by a suggestion of politics being introduced as compulsory, in the early years of school life. One girl said: “If we had regular debates about politics it would mean we could make the right choices and independent choices.”
Mayor Jules Pipe said young people backing votes at 16, was a recent phenomenon. He said: “Going back ten years, overwhelmingly the audience was against it but I have noticed a shift in recent years and it has really accelerated in the last few. My gut feeling is yes too.”
Many of the young people said they felt unsafe in Hackney but believed that would change when they got older as the influences of street and gang crime waned in their lives. Though when asked, none had been a victim of crime.
Borough Commander Simon Laurence said: “Gangs form a very small minority of young people in Hackney and they deserve our attention. I really hope we have moved on from when there was lots and lots of stop and search and that it is more intelligence-led and targeted.”
Diversity is accepted and celebrated in Hackney, it was agreed, although, according to one girl wearing a headscarf, she felt sometimes negatively stereotyped as a result of her dress.
One young member of the audience said: “Loads of people, especially ethnic people are associated with crime,” who said it ended up becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. “People maybe accept it, they act on it.”
Another young person argued that there is a “very fine line between keeping the public safe and making sure individual freedoms are maintained”, adding that respect between the public and the police had to be mutual, and some young people had to take responsibility for their actions.
“It makes you think first before you do things because people judge you,” she said, before urging schools to do more to tackle the issue”
Pauline Adams said: “We need to build empathy for each other. The more we talk, share and debate, the more we will be able to become a solid community.”
Local Democracy Week aims to bring together young people and elected representatives. Councillors visited schools across the borough as part of the annual event.
