Rock the Vote!

I do wonder if this is the year that the long awaited "youth vote" will appear in elections?

Both on this side of the Atlantic, with Boris Johnson and on the far side with Barack Obama, there seems to be a strong youth following developing in their campaigns. This is evident both through news coverage and through online activity.

The fact is that youth turnout in elections generally is appalling. This might in part explain the tendency of the current government to slap us about- introducing top-up fees, devaluing degrees and education, the appalling levels of youth unemployment and inactivity, the ever expanding national debt and their willingness to send British troops out to any conflict going. They know they can get away with it because young people don't vote.

What is surprising then is not the emergence of the youth vote (provided it happens) but the ongoing lack of youth involvement in politics more widely.

Come 2009, there is a chance that we will have a new young American President, a newish young French President, a new and young Mayor of London and (if we finally get our election) a new young British Prime Minister.

Having the leaders in place is a start. But popular participation is if anything more important. It may seem a strange call for a Conservative to make- but now is the time for winds of change!