More from the Young Inspectors

Just to finish off my writing about the Young Inspectors program. Today we completed our training and are now fully prepared Young Inspectors, ready to start work within the next few weeks.
Today was also really good, as the activities were again great and I picked up lots of new skills and built on experience.
I'll be posting shorts posts like this every time I do an inspection. Just wanted to keep you updated!

1st Leaders Debate

As promised, I will give my brief view of tonight first ever live leaders debate. I didn't manage to take any notes, but I have it all in the mind. I must admit, I got a little caught up and excited in the whole thing!
As MYP I am impartial, however even the BBC agreed that tonight was Nick Clegg's night. I must say that up until now he was relatively unknown amongst the British people, however today Clegg really did himself and his party proud and it was good to see. British politics is now a bit more interesting and it is no longer a two horse race of "can the Conservatives pull off a 6.9% swing?" and that it is now more of a three horse race than ever. Even the other parties are having their say, with both Welsh and Scottish nationalists gaining popularity. Of course, I'm not saying whether change will happen, as it usually doesn't, but it is nice to see so many different points of view and so many people showing a genuine interest in politics and their country.
Gordon Brown was again sound on his economic policy and showed he wasn't the man portrayed wrongly in the media. Cameron I felt did acceptable, however certainly did not live up to the expectation most had from him. I think nearly everyone was shocked that he did not take over the debate and in fact seemed to lose it.
The next debate will be on Sky, Thursday and promises to be a good one. It's mainly on foreign and international policies, though I'm sure other issues will again be raised.
So with many now unsure on what to expect, all we can guarantee is entertainment! Will Nick Clegg stun us all again and keep his hold in the debate? Will Gordon Brown keep sound on his policies and come back? Or will David Cameron meet the expectation of journalists and the media? Who knows, but we're sure in for a fantastic General Election battle this year!

Television Debates

So it's the first of three television leaders debates on today, which will be shown on ITV at 8.30pm. These will be between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg, leaders of the three mainstream political parties in the UK and will feature questions from the audience members about policies and manifestos. This is generally get a good understanding of party policy, what is being done to improve (save) our country and of course for the party leaders to try and gain an upper hand against each other.

The two others debates will be on over the next few weeks, with the next on Sky and the last on the BBC. Again I will recommend, as I did the manifestos, that you give these a watch as they promise to be very interesting and may offer just a bit of political banter. Even if you aren't in to politics, it is nice to know where the country could be heading (which is down the gutter unless we do something about it).

I will be posting again after, with some notes on what I thought of the debate. Sadly not the Sky one, as I'm too poor and hate the capitalist money grabbers, but I will be doing them on the BBC one, as this will be the most interest of all three and could change the course of the election.

Young Inspectors

Today I started training to become a Young Inspector. To give a brief outline, a Young Inspector is somebody aged 13-19 who has or may be be suffering some kind of difficulties in life, which can be many things really, and would like to use their experiences to help others in a positive way. The role simply entails that you go in to buildings and services for young people, inspect them and discuss ways in which they can improve for young people, or how they are already good and can be used as examples for other services. The project was set up by the government (Cabinet member Ed Balls..who I met and he liked my speech!! Yay!) and this means, young people involved are paid £75 per inspection!! (though you can only do six in a year).

Moving on, as my explanation is done with now, I began training today and actually enjoyed it! There were ten of us and three youth workers and at first I was rather annoyed about going. I was tired and grumpy and lacked the effort. Yet for once, wasn't really scared about being in a social situation! I could believe, am I getter better all of a sudden?! I hope so, as that would be great!

So we all sat down and the person I was sat next to immediately talked to me. He was great and very sociable. Needless to say his name was also Nathan. The others were all brilliant too and hopefully I've made some new friends which I will be working with over the next year.

We, as you always do in these types of things, did a lot of activities and tasks. All of which I actually found interesting, which is a first. There is always one you find boring, but these were all pretty fun!

Tomorrow I'll be back at the same times to complete the training and then be ready to start my 'new job' effectively. I really can't wait!

You might be thinking, how does this tie in with my role as MYP? Well quite simply, I am now able to extend my role and go out in to the community in order to try and improve things directly for young people. I will be inspecting buses, libraries, health centres and youth clubs, as well as things such as leisure centres and many more.

This is a great opportunity and I'm rather thankful and still disbelieving to have it. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

Election Manifestos

I've been a bit behind on the General Election chat so far! I've been so in to it, I actually haven't had a chance to update you all. Though having said this, I'm sure most know a little bit at the least on the subject.

Today, the Liberal Democrats launched their manifesto, meaning that all three mainstream parties have done so. This gives voters a pretty good comparisons and helps them make to chose in the upcoming election.

As well as this, many other parties have launched their manifestos, all with different ideas. It would certainly be worth looking at as many party manifestos as possible if you are uncertain, to gain a good view and knowledge of who you would like your vote to go to.

Even for those who aren't considering voting (or those who can't) it would be advisable to read them, as these may become future implemented ideas within our country, so it would be good to know about them beforehand.

I urge all those who can, to vote! Because it really does count. There are so many reasons for voting and only a few for not, but I really won't go in to detail. All I shall say is, please do not waste your vote, even if it is to cancel out someone else's vote.

Labour Party Manifesto

Conservative Party Manifesto

Liberal Democrat Party Manifesto

Digital Economy Bill

For those of you who have not heard, the Digital Economy Bill is a current act the Labour government are looking to rush through before parliament dissolves. It specifies certain aspects of internet use should be control and allows government to block, delete and restrict users, websites and general internet use. The bill itself has not been properly examined and fatal flaws are being pointed out by the likes of the BBC and the Liberal Democrats.

I've provided a bit of information on these links, if you would like to read in to it:

BBC- Call for a debate

BBC- Q&A on the bill

The Liberal Democrats, the main opposers to the bill, also give their words on how the act will/will not be passed.

Please, if you feel strongly about this, then get as many people to email or call your local MP today and over the next few days, to prevent such an act being passed through at the very last moment. This isn't fair on young people, nor law makers.

SCYP - March '10 Meeting

Today was actually a pretty productive meeting. We discussed a lot of things really and had a bit of fun with the debate, which I chaired!

For the first part, we had guest speaker Ross Borman, who is part of the Inter Generational projects and works on boosting relations between generations, removing ageism and stereotypes. He had previously emailed me about an event in Southampton called 'City for All Ages', in which he asked me, as well as others from different groups in age (seniors council, etc), to speak a little about the challenges people face and how we can overcome them. He came today again to talk about this and explain how this will present fantastic opportunities for all ages.

I believe this is going to be a brilliant event and is going to be the start of not only gaining young people a better image in the media, but also developing links with the seniors council and other groups to achieve common goals, such as the improvement of transport and cost.

As well as this, we did sub-group work and our group discussed more about the hate crime project. We decided the best approach would be to ask ITV fixers on help for creating a sequence game, involving video clips. Providing the game/video is made well, this project is going to really target hate crime and bullying, with great effect. I think this will be a one to watch and hopefully will be a success in Southampton schools.

We also went over many other points, with future projects looking very hopeful! There was also lots of feedback from some of our recent endeavours, including a talk from me on the recent south East Residential. After this, the debate began and somehow I ended up as chair. We agreed to discuss vote sixteen and many good points were raised. Though I struggled controlling Mr Rawlins!

Although I did let this run of a bit, we had time to briefly run over a few points and once more discuss our May elections, when we chose a new chair and positions. Everyone wanted to be involved at this prospect, so we all put our names down at the end of the meeting for positions and which team we wanted to be in. I decided to run for Vice Chair and Media Rep! Hopefully our end of May election, will be just as interesting as that on the 5th!

Another excellent meeting on the whole!

MYP Profile

Forgot to mention you may notice I have added a link on my 'websites' saying: " My MYP Profile ". This is a link to my views and profile as part of the UKYP. We were asked to write 20-50 word responses to the questions asked. Ok, I went a little over, but here's what I said:

Which political issues are you most passionate about?

This is difficult for me to name only a few, as I am passionate about almost every political issue. But for me, this has to be the image of young people in the media. I firmly believe we are getting an unfair reputation as hooded knife carriers, who are prepared to use violence at every opportunity. This is not true. There are so many wonderful things young people do, which deserves far more recognition and praise.

What do you feel is the biggest issue for young people in your constituency?

In Southampton, there is a major issue with young people having nothing to do and no way of getting themselves to do things. We need more opportunities and better, cheaper and more efficient public transport, to allow us travel to these new prospects.

What do you hope to achieve during your term of office?

I would like to achieve cheap, if not free, bus fares and other public transport costs for young people in Southampton. I am also aiming to gain much needed media respect and community support for youths, who are facing an adult world which seems to be against them.

What is your future career ambition?

I would love for a career in politics, television, journalism and controversy! My dream would probably be to become a major political figure, in either the UK or Europe, but I have many other interests I would certainly like to pursue as part of this.

Which public figure do you most admire and why?

I do not admire any public figure as an idol; in the sense that I would like to be myself and create my own persona. However, one person I am inspired by has to be Eddie Izzard. As well as making me laugh lots and lots, he is a hard worker, with a fascinating life story and has come from nothing, with an ordinary lifestyle, to a big success. This proves to me it is possible to move from working class, with little opportunities, to become successful and fulfil ambition.

If there was one message you could send to the government, what would it be?

Please give up your powers and hand them over to me. I shall ‘promise’, as you would to me, to give you sufficient enough money to live the bare minimum quality of life and just about survive. Thank you :)

Additional comments:

I am quite the avid social networker; enjoying blogging, emailing and keeping in touch with people. One of my passions has to be my Blog, as well as Facebook and Twitter, to which I am addicted to :)

Again, This is the full profile if you want to have a look!

UKYP Elections in the Echo!

At last they have printed the article, after a few weeks! Despite the printing making it look like we all have bizarre lipstick on, it is still a good photo and article. Thanks to all the guys involved and the Southern Daily Echo news team! (click picture to read article)

SCYP - Hate Crime Discussion

Today was a good meeting! We had a professional from ITV Fixers in, for us to discuss our plans on 'Hate Crime in the Community'. This will be a project on how hate crime effects victims and, in the long term, we will use it to raise awareness and reduce hate crime; bullying and lack of community spirit.

We came up with loads of ideas today, but I will keep you updated on how our next discussion goes. This looks like it will be a very good project!

South East Residential

From Friday 19th March to Sunday 21st March, I experienced my first taste of the UK Youth Parliament, in the form of a three day overnight residential at an activities centre, in the Isle of Wight.

For me this was pretty new experience on all fronts. I have obviously stayed over at places, been on group holidays before, but only a few and never a residential trip. So I was pretty nervous, especially as I'm not a particularly good socialiser, when it comes to meeting new people and full stop for that matter.

As well as this, I haven't even been a MYP for a month yet and am new to the whole Youth Parliament set up on the whole. As you can imagine, I was rather scared!

However, upon arriving and settling in my room (being the first person in there helped), I realised I wasn't the only one, with only a few experienced MYPs there and the others in the same boat as me. This of course gave me a bit more confidence, to think that I wasn't alone.

Everyone else then started arriving and I was so thankful, as they were all so down to earth and wonderful! Although I'm pretty socially shy, I still really enjoyed being in the company of the other Young MPs, especially those whom I shared a room with.

Another part of the trip I was most fearing, was the food. It did not disappoint. Exactly as I expected, though possibly worse, but at the same time it was bearable and just about edible, if you were willing to risk food poisoning. Despite this, I ate quite a bit of it! This was probably due to desperation or perhaps the simple fact I was rather tired indeed.

The evenings were a good laugh too. The first night I laughed so much, I couldn't actually sleep; it was so worth it! The level of wit and intellect was high; perfect and I felt as I was with others who I could understand and seem relatively normal with! (though this is difficult for me!)

In the day we did activities, which I felt went pretty fantastically! I took away a fair bit of knowledge, but more than anything enjoyment and bonds with new people, which is vital for the politics career path.

The showers. Brief here, but I, along with others, managed to survive them! They weren't actually too bad to be fair, as I've experience far worse. These ones were actually warm, at times; fairly powerful, despite requiring continuous button pressing and also relaxing for a good two or three minutes!

We also had time to stroll and be free! Which was often a bit boring, but at the same time relaxing as we could talk for a bit and get to know each other. I felt everyone got on really well and will certainly make for a brilliant team over the next year.

On the whole, I really have to say I enjoyed my first UKYP residential immensely! I felt a lot more comfortable than I thought; had a great time with lots of laughs; met some amazing new people and friends, but also I just had a lot of fun! I am looking forward to the next meeting and the Annual Sitting in July!!! :D