The John Smith Centre has staged our first election hustings for young people ahead of the Scottish Parliamentary elections next week.
In the beautiful surroundings of St Giles’ Cathedral, in the heart of Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, six young candidates from the main parties debated the housing crisis, the environment, mental health, and much more besides – making their pitch to an audience of 150 young people on why they deserved their vote.
We were joined by our friends at the Scottish Youth Parliament who supported the evening. The occasion was recorded for YouTube by the Scottish Youth Film Foundation.
The hustings comes a week after the John Smith Centre published our annual UK Youth Poll, revealing the priorities and concerns of young people across the country. This week’s debate gave each candidate the opportunity to reflect on those findings and set out the policies that they believe will give young people a good start in life.
Our poll showed how more young people than last year believe in our democratic values and Tuesday night’s debate demonstrated that, far from turning their backs on democratic participation, young people are getting involved, taking action, and doing their part to build a more vibrant society.
A huge thanks to all involved – and please do watch the video.
