It is becoming increasingly obvious that younger people in our society are being seriously marginalised. I do not need to tell you that students in England and Wales face among the highest debts in the world after they graduate. Job opportunities are so thin on the ground there is huge pressure to go into expensive third level education to avoid becoming unemployed. After students graduate many find themselves doing internships, working for nothing, for long periods of time. The Bank of Englands policy of keeping interest rates of almost 0% for five years and projected to be three more, while it may help indebted households, pushes up house prices artificially high to the point where an entire generation cannot buy their own home. Those who pay the inflated prices will very likely find themselves in substantial negative equity when prices do eventually correct. This low interest rate environment is not passed on to student loans who are presently paying 3% above the highest measure of inflation (RPI), which is more than 6% and this can only go up.
I believe the policies, which appear to protect the older and wealthier citizen, at the expense of the younger and poorer citizen are a direct result of who votes and who does not. Voting was the over riding issue for Nick Clegg after the last general elections and he would only form a coalition with a party that would give him a referendum on the voting system. Whether or not you agree with him is not my point. My point is merely that how we vote was his primary focus rather than issues that effect the citizens of the country.
We should help mobilise younger people to become much more effective in getting their political and economic demands addressed by politicians in the same way older people do. It is simply to get specific student voting. To ensure that students in the most strategic universities and colleges register and vote, or vote by proxy, when we do have an election.
These are the universities and colleges that are in, or close to, marginal constituencies.
Take a look at the following link of the marginal seats from the 2010 general election http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/apr/06/election-2010-parliamentary-constituencies-westminster
In it you will see that many MPs won seat by very slim majorities in quite a lot of constituencies. Take a look at Guildford for instance. The seat was won by only 87 votes where only 67% of those eligible to vote did so. It does not even include those that did not bother to register to vote and, I would guess, a lot of the students in Guildford College were among those not registered.
I suggest the student unions in the universities and colleges in, or near, marginal constituencies (where the seat was won by less than 15% majority), help students register to vote even if it means getting people to sit down at a computer, registering online, printing and posting the forms themselves. Then create an environment where students in these marginal seats become aware that their votes are much more powerful than the majority of peoples votes encouraging them to vote when there is an election. This could be an enormously effective form of direct action, and, not only is it legal, it concurs with a citizens civic duties.
Students unions should inform politicians they are doing this and let them know they will use any legal means at their disposal to ensure the interests of the young are given the same level of priority as the interests of the old
