How Westminster shunned young people
Ahead of the General Election, Dr Benjamin Bowman, a teaching fellow in Comparative Politics at Bath University, spoke to Stand Up on young people’s political engagement.
We now know that young people did turnout for the most recent election, but over the decades the numbers of young people voting had dwindled. It was a pattern of disengagement caused by politicians leaving young people behind. In a 2015 article for The Conversation entitled ‘Hate the players, love the game: why young people aren’t voting’, Dr Bowman argued how young people had been shunned from British institutions. Dr Bowman felt that the 2015 election was a crucial moment for young people, but the referendum on Brexit has arguably brought fresh urgency to needing young people to be involved in politics.
“Politics has changed a lot in the UK,” Dr Bowman acknowledges. “It’s been a long term change, it’s been a long time coming but it’s felt like a sudden change with the referendum. I’m half American so that sense of polarisation you get in a way is kind of familiar to me — but British politics wasn’t like that before.”
The split in Britain is hard to deny; hate crimes spiked in the wake of Brexit and there are still bitter divisions between Remainers and Leavers. The parties themselves have distanced themselves from one another. There can be little confusion between Corbyn and May. Farron, the now departing Lib Dem leader thought this would offer an opportunity for his party to sweep the middle ground but views became as entrenched. There was no majority at the election but the votes were split between a truly right wing party and a resurgent left wing party that has particularly caught the attention of our generation.
“Young people, particularly students are very supportive of Labour,” Dr Bowman states confidently.
“For me, the question of whether it’s critical for students kind of revolves around that because for a lot of students it will feel like there isn’t a place for them. I think a lot of young people either didn’t vote or voted Remain and so when Labour come out and say “Brexit is settled” on the one hand, you can see where they’re coming from because Labour have to live with that schism in British society but I think for young people that kind of leaves them a little bit without a home.”
YouGov found that 75% of young people voted to Remain but that our generation heavily backed Labour. The Greens lost nearly half their votes, suggesting that this was an election framed around beating the Tories. That priority, may have pushed Brexit into the corner but young people have voiced their frustration at Brexit and May’s handling of the result. The vote to support Corbyn may not translate to guaranteed support long term. When dismantling the Tory austerity policy comes to fruition, then young people may well turn back to the question of the European Union.
Beating austerity however, is understandably what young people are hungry for and politicians linked with austerity and higher university fees (as well as the wider establishment) are struggling to win over young votes.
“They should be aware it’s going to take a long time to rebuild that relationship. A lot of it comes down to the lies about tuition fees and about austerity., but it’s also about the Iraq war. It’s not just young people who don’t trust politicians but when young people don’t trust politicians they find other things to do.”
It’s not just young people who don’t trust politicians but when young people don’t trust politicians they find other things to do.”
Dr Bowman laments the attitude that he fears has gripped Westminster, where young people aren’t seen as voters but are expected to go to university and get a job — and are thought of as a distant concept.
While the Greens have long supported free university, Labour finally got behind this position.
“It’s really welcome to see a major party like Labour step up.
“There’s been a breakdown between young people and politicians. It’s been a long time brewing. Basically, if you were born in the 80s or later you see elections happening to other people. I think quite a lot of older people are reluctant voters. They think ‘I don’t really trust politicians but I better do it’. Whereas, I think young people see it differently. They think ‘yeah I don’t trust politicians, they’re all in London, they don’t really care about me so why don’t I do something different?’”
In 2015, 2.9 million young people across Britain volunteered. Millennials may potentially be re-engaging with politics, but our generation was never apathetic to the world regardless of whether we voted or not. Young people were willing to participate through other activities, where the results were more clear. “They want to see a tangible impact,” as Dr Bowman states.
“The thing you always see — and it really annoys me — is people banging on about how young people don’t vote. First of all, it blames them for bad policies. If young people aren’t voting, you don’t put a celebrity on the TV telling them to vote. Apart from anything else, we’ve had cringey, patronising slogans since the 90s and it doesn’t work. What you need to do is give them policies and organise.
“The majority of students do vote so when people bang on about trying to get students to vote then they’re just not informed. “
If there’s been a political earthquake then it is not about Conservative vs Labour but young people showing they want to be heard. Our generation is demanding respect from an establishment who had largely forgotten about us until it was time to look at where to cut funding, such as through housing benefit and the Education Maintenance Grant. Our ageing population plays a major role in deciding who goes into government. Young people may be outnumbered but they’ve shown we aren’t letting our concerns go without a fight.
