Sprout Attends Election Q&A
Tuesday afternoon saw a mini pre-election adventure for me and other members of theSprout as we were invited to head down to Red Dragon FM to pose questions to party members of the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and Conservatives. Even me not being an avid political follower, I was interested to see what the reps of each of these parties had to say in the run up to one of the most hotly contested elections in all of British history.
First up was the Tory leader for Wales, Nick Bourne AM. He was grilled on taxes, the House of Lords, ‘green’ travel and tuition fees. He said his party, one that is rather unfavoured in South Wales, wouldn’t aim to cut tuition fees for future students. However he did state in his personal view, to help our economy recover, we need to train people now and get them an education for free to help them achieve this, but this wasn’t his party’s line.
As a man who drives a Toyota Prius himself (one of the most pretentious cars you can get, and ironically owned mainly by politicians...) he was excited for the future of greener travel and energy, especially in South Wales. Labour and the Tories have both suggested an electrified line from London Paddington to as far as Swansea to decrease the emissions from this service.
When questioned on whether Britain would fall into the depression that came with the last Tory government under Margaret Thatcher he simply said “You’re voting for this country’s future, not this country’s past.”
Second to take the seat was Leanne Wood, a Plaid Am who currently sits in the Welsh Assembly in the Bay. A very valley-ish woman and a member of a party that is sometimes considered nationalist and also one that knows it will never have full power in Westminster, she was naturally questioned on all things Welsh. As Plaid is one of the smaller of the main parties running in Wales, it cannot achieve a majority to win although it can win seats in the government as part of a coalition (group of parties) if the election on Thursday doesn’t find a unanimous winner.
When asked if Plaid was simply a nationalist party under a pseudonym, she responded that Plaid wasn’t wholly a Welsh speaking party as many people think but actually most of its supporters and politicians don’t even speak the language. This was somewhat disconcerting as Plaid is famous for trying to preserve the language of Wales yet its politicians haven’t learnt it and neither do they seem like they’re going to. She believes Plaid is allowing for a wider opinion to be heard for the election and it shouldn’t be constrained to the main three parties.
I asked Leanne about getting a job once I finish my education, an issue that affects many of you and many thousands of others across the UK. 45,000 jobs have been lost under Labour in Wales since they gained power 13 years ago and the economic downfall hasn’t helped the situation as Wales now has the highest proportion of employed in the UK. She said her party would strive for green jobs, ones that helped make renewable energy, and that schemes were set in place to give £2,500 worth of training to those who have been out of work for 6 months. The biggest swing for Plaid is that they want to cut tuition fees for Welsh students in Wales, however she noted it’s unrealistic to have them abolished in the next few years.
The Welsh leader for the Lib Dems, Kirsty Williams, was our third and final victim, as Labour had attended a Q&A earlier in the day.
Kirsty’s answers were much more aimed at us, young people who are voting for the first time or will be doing so in the next elections. She stated her party wants to end the minimum wage for 16 year olds as it is £2 less than that of a 21 year old, arguing that a coffee is the same price whether you’re 16 or 21, living isn’t cheaper because you’re young. Too right. My first job when I was 16, I was paid £3 odd an hour and that was only 4 years ago.
She doesn’t believe that higher education is the best answer for our country, but it should be based on what is right for an individual and that instead of formal education, meaningful apprenticeships should be available for those who aren’t academic but want to be trained.
16 should be the voting age, Kirsty said. When I was 16 I didn’t know or care about politics but this election has seen a change and it’s a widely talked about issue, not just in Wales but across the UK. She wants to get into schools to teach teenagers what politics is really about, not just the boring old stuff that we’re so used to.
For me, the penultimate realisation that teenagers were actually paying attention to politics for once came a few days ago at Solus in Cardiff University: Nick Clegg was giving a talk at *9am* and, being a students' union in the middle studentville, we figured the place would be empty that early in the morning. We were so wrong: never in my life have I seen a university hall so full of students at 9 in the morning. While it meant we weren't able to kidnap Mr Clegg for an exclusive Sprout interview as we'd hoped, it showed that young people in Wales care far more about this election than people probably give us credit for.
You can listen to the session at Red Dragon FM's website below:
http://www.reddragonfm.co.uk/Article.asp?id=1778473
