Young people feel like the government doesn’t care about them

First published on 06/07/24

“We’re just going to boil to death”, 18-year-old Ruby Llewelyn says, three days before the general election in 2024.

She is about to go to Cardiff University to study politics and journalism and is fed up with a whole lot of things when it comes to politics. Her viewpoint is hard to listen to when I meet her because it’s raw, real and an indication of how rapidly so much is slipping away from us.

Considering why young people currently feel so alienated by the government - Ruby - who has been on a gap year working at Penta Primary School said: “As an emerging professional and as an 18-year-old in the working world, I don't see any party that's particularly appealing to a youth audience.

“I don't think in their party manifestos or in any campaign trail that there are any youth facing policies or any attempt at all to try and engage a younger audience in their policymaking.”

If you have spent any time with a young person recently it is not hard to work out that we are a little bit jaded with the world. And with just days to go before we see another major political milestone, I realised after spending a few hours with a group of young people I’d never met before at the Wales Millennium Centre just how disconnected they feel from it.

What is firstly the most apparent is that anyone under the age of 25 in particular has been done a bit of a disservice when it comes to entering the adult world.

No one asked us for our views on Brexit and we are now feeling the effects of this. No one could prepare us for finishing our education or sitting exams during a pandemic. And certainly no one has helped us to handle the pinch of the cost of living crisis while entering the workforce at such a politically turbulent time.

The biggest problem? Young people feel like the government doesn’t care about them.

15-year-old Gwydion Kempson, from Newport is looking ahead - and one of his biggest goals is to have his own family but believes more needs to be done to improve people's awareness of what is going on and how to plan for the future. Considering the state of the UK at the moment, Gywdion believes that more children and teenagers need to be taught about what is going on at school to improve young people's understanding of the political landscape.

He said: "Eventually I'll have to vote and none of what is going at the moment feels like it helps people my age. There isn't something to help children understand, either. Politics isn't really taught that well. It was just something we are kind of told will happen in the future and we'll know what to do."

You can read this piece here.