Since August 2013, Members of Youth Parliament have been working tirelessly on their campaign called ‘Make your Mark’ which is the UK’s largest ever youth consultation, it is an annual campaign devised to garner the views of as many young people in the UK as possible and shape the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) manifesto for the coming year.
The campaign is run by UKYP nationwide and is managed by the British Youth Council (BYC). This year over 478,000 young people from all over the UK (and overseas territories) voted for their priority issue from 15 topics which included: votes at 16, euthanasia, mental health education in the curriculum and fund our youth services – this far exceeded last year’s total of 235,000 proof that young people do want to be heard.
The top 5 national issues as voted by the young people of the UK are: Votes at 16 and 17 in all public referendums, Combat youth unemployment, a curriculum to prepare us for life, better work experience and zero tolerance to bullying. These motions are being debated in the House of Commons on 15th November, as part of Youth Takeover day. The top issue voted in chamber on the day will become the UKYP National Campaign for the year ahead. You can watch the debates live on BBC Parliament from 11.10am!
Suffolk Youth Parliament collected just over 3800 votes from young people in county and our two aspiring female politician’s Kate Reynolds and Natasha Graves received awards from the British Youth Council for individually collecting over 1000 ballot papers each. Natasha collected hers and Kate’s awards at the BYC Convention in London this month.
We would like to thank the young people all over Suffolk who took part in the ballot, we will keep you updated on the progress of the campaigns on our Suffolk UK Youth Parliament Facebook page and on our Twitter feed @SuffolkUKYP. Please also check out our information pages and blogs on www.thesource.me.uk/vote. Please get in touch if you want to support Suffolk UKYP or stand to be an MYP in the New Year!
Amber Spearing
Support Worker – Suffolk Youth Parliament (UKYP)
[email protected]