Kevin’s PM swap

What you would do if you were Prime Minister for a week?

Day 1) I would begin by embedding youth voice in to parliament/government. Young people (aged 16+) would be elected to form a separate committee to advise government on ALL issues not just the once that politicians think affect young people.

Day 2) with this change automatically it would open the age to vote to 16 thus creating more political influence on young people. Because of the importance of the vote education would play a huge part. I would combine the PSHE and citizenship syllabus for teachers and introduce compulsory government and politics lessons however it would not have any set syllabus it would offer the scope for students to communicate and share ideas as well as thinking about party politics.

Day 3) a further thing that I would introduce is a youth newspaper. This would mean that across the country instead of a lot of time and money being wasted into persuading the media to let young people have an article in their local paper it could be easily submitted in to the national youth newspaper.

Day 4) more money needs to be invested into youth services/councils/forums/parliaments. Yes the introduction and 3 year continuation (although LEA’s have to help finance it) of the Youth Opportunity and Capital Fund is great news but these are one off grants, core funding needs to be supplied or when Councils get their budgets there should be a set amount set aside for these types of organisations, promoting children’s rights and putting a youth positive vibe back in to the city, town or village.

Day 5) A further priority would have to be to reduce poverty so I would have to increase the job opportunities available in the worst hit areas and so through investigation I would implement (begin to-I only have a week!) and invest money into a regrowth strategy and investigations.

Day 6) also another possibility would be to create fair taxation. What this would mean is that the people who are on high benefits, unemployed and living in poverty would have to pay less tax on most things than the rich. In addition to this I would make having offshore accounts illegal so that celebrities would have to pay their tax as well which means that although £2 million of benefit fraud may still be continuing billions of pounds form richer peoples tax would be an income.

Day 7) Lastly I would rest!

What the Prime Minister would find if he lived your life for a week?

He would find that as a young person it gets very confusing as to your identity. You don’t know who you are you young, are you old or what? Life is a brink will it go one-way or another?

He would find in relation to the above that you couldn’t have your voice; you are bossed around especially in the education institution. School/college is a book-teaching lesson there is not flexibility. He would find that you have to pay full fare even when you are a child (17 and under) and that is ethically wrong to me! He would see the amount of discrimination and lastly he would see what a young person sees, feels, hears, and smells and touches. He would want to grow up quickly as the country that we live in isn’t perfect and it treats young people unfairly!!! He would see life as it really is.