Youth Politics Fix on ITV News Anglia

[0:00]But before that, a young woman from Peterborough, who was recently elected to the Youth Parliament to represent the city, is calling on youngsters to get involved in politics and also for the voting age to be lowered. Aisha Khan says there is a wave of interest in politics among the young, and she's enlisted the help of Fixers, the campaign that gives young people a voice to harness that energy. My parents have been very political, they they like to express their views, and they both support different parties. And so we've always had a spirit of debate across the dinner table. And we've always debated a lot of issues, social issues, and we've disagreed and argued, and that's always been encouraged in my household. I was always told you can be whatever you want. When I was very young and naive, I wanted to be the queen because I thought, you know, that's that's where the power is. My name is Aisha Khan. I'm 17 years old and I'm from Peterborough. My Fixers project is about getting more young people involved in politics. I was elected as Peterborough's Youth MP last March. I realize that, you know, there are burning injustices happening all around the world, and if you want to make a change, it's very difficult to do so. But if you want to make a change, politics is where you need to be. So why do you think that politics is important? I think it's important because at the end of the day, this is our world. It it kind of determines what our future will be like, you know, the salaries we get, the kind of jobs we go into, so I think it's really important. So are you interested in politics? Not overly, no. Why is that? I just think it's all a load of rubbish, really. Nobody ever tells the truth. So what what do you think could be done to increase your interest in politics or your engagement? Um, I think having manifestos that are actually more aimed at young younger demographic will make a big difference for a start. Maybe adding a bit more fun into it, sort of, um, making it a bit more positive. A lot of politics these days is all about the negative stuff. Why do you think so many young people aren't interested in politics? They're kind of fed up with the same old, same old from politicians, maybe. Um, getting the same kind of cliches and the same old story lines and not actually hearing what they need to hear, what the politicians are living lies. Have you always voted? Um, yes, since I've been able to, yeah. Getting involved doesn't always mean you should join a political party or you should become a politician, or you should stand for office or, you know, um, it can just be political participation, voting. So are there signs that more young people are getting involved in politics? Yes, absolutely. I mean, from the last general election, polls are showing that more young people, more 18 to 24-year-olds voted than ever before. So we're definitely moving in the right direction. How do you think you can get even more young people involved? Well, I think giving 16 and 17-year-olds a vote would be a great start. At the moment, the government doesn't have to write policies for teenagers and for young people because they're not trying to win their votes. So I think by doing that, we'd get more young people involved and engaged in politics. My message to young people is that we live in trying times. Everything is at stake. Your future is at stake, your children's future is at stake, and that is why you should be involved, get engaged, and be involved in politics to push your message across. Remember the name Aisha Khan. Now, to see more about this story and other Fixers projects, you can head online. Website address on your screen there, fixers.org.uk/youthpolitics.