Political Literacy, UK-Style: Why Britain’s youth keep saying, ‘I don’t care’
The ‘youthquake’ in Britain’s political landscape seemed to fizzle out before it could finally erupt.
LONDON- Across the pond in the United States, youth involvement in politics has seen an increase over the past six years, with the 2020 Presidential Election showing an 11 percent increase in young voters. Despite this, lack of faith in democracy is still apparent in America, but it isn’t quite on the same level as the United Kingdom.
“You really get that sense in the U.K., like ‘don’t bother me about politics, I don’t care’ — it’s a matter of the government simply not caring enough for the youth vote,” states writer for the New Statesman, Bea Issacson. While the 23-year-old journalist believes she is well-versed in politics herself, she feels that the youth isn’t a priority within parliament, which in turn affects their overall belief in a fair democracy.
“The issue is that the people in Parliament are very aware that young people will always vote left,” she says, which leaves those in power to focus on the support of older generations in order to stay in office. According to research from the Guardian, over half of those in the Labour party feel that the government has a ‘very bad’ understanding of their lives.
Not only that, but Issacson feels that the U.K. as a whole has a lackadaisical approach towards overarching, macro political issues.
“British people will, especially the middle age, protest and make a big deal about local elections. Everyone will have an opinion on what they think of the new refurbishment of the local church, but nobody will actually care that much about Westminster politics,” concludes Issacson.
With that being said, the solution for greater investment in reshaping the current political landscape could come from the youth, specifically in the classroom. The Guardian included a report from the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), who focuses heavily on political literacy, detailed that “one-fifth of (U.K.) schools were teaching no political literacy material at all” meaning that some young people are graduating with little to no understanding of what happens in parliament.
“I feel like young people aren’t emphasized in political participation,” claims Angelica, a 21-year-old supervisor at the Creme de la Crepe shop at Covent Garden. Despite being five years removed from any formal education, her lack of enthusiasm for politics has been a constant throughout her life.
“To be honest, I don’t know much about the people in power, I just know that they’re old,” she says, citing Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Queen Elizabeth II as the only figures she could think of. “There’s older people making decisions for the uninterested youth, but I am too focused on my own life to really worry about it,” stated Angelica as she paused to take a customer’s order.
After the 2019 election, a U.K. research company Ipsos MORI did a poll to find out how many of those under the age of 24 were voting. The voter turnout for that age demographic was just 47%, which goes against the “youthquake” of political involvement that was expected towards the end of the decade.
This is a direct example of what organizations like the APPG are trying to fix. The all-party forum is attempting to “explore how best to further strengthen political literacy education so that young people regardless of background, can play an informed, active role as citizens in our democracy.”
Simon Fell, Member of Parliament and Co-Chair of the APPG, believes that it’s on the Department of Education to make what he feels is a necessary change to promote more political awareness within student’s curriculum.
“What is clear is that scant provisions and a lack of teacher training have stopped the potential of citizenship education being realized,” states Fell, 41, who is one of the members of the U.K. government who is actively looking to involve the younger generation. “It is our responsibility as parliamentarians to ensure that political literacy education is considered a priority in the classroom,” he continued.
Not only are young people being robbed of an opportunity to learn about politics before they go out into the real world, those that are teaching them do not feel confident in giving them the tools they need in the first place. An astounding one percent of over 3,000 secondary school teachers feel prepared to teach their students about politics, which is even more crucial during a political climate that is dealing with a cost of living crisis, Partygate, climate change, and many more issues.
Furthermore, nearly three-fourths of parents feel that being politically literate is key for secondary school children in England, yet only a third of them feel that the curriculum is achieving that goal.
“We need to rapidly scale up initial teacher training provisions for democratic education by introducing a teacher training bursary in citizenship education and/or politics,” added Fell, who believes that these added resources would help teachers become more effective in helping their students understand the political landscape.
When comparing the United Kingdom to other European countries, young people in England just simply aren’t as interested as their peers in other areas. During the German federal election in 2017, voter turnout for citizens aged around 18–24 showed at nearly 70 percent, and then turnout for the Scottish Independence Referendum saw a rate that was three fourths of their population of 16–17 year olds.
Unlike their European counterparts, the younger generation in Britain doesn’t seem to have the same level of interest when it comes to their countries politics and policies. While the “youthquake” never really shook up the political climate, new parties like the APPG are hoping to inspire the youth to not only show up to the polls, but fulfill their civic duty to be active within their local and national politics.
