Young people "feel picked on" - Alliance

5.28.00pm GMT Fri 13th Jan 2006

Young Alliance Chair, Cllr Ian James Parsley, has hit out at politicians, including the UK Prime Minister, seeming intent to make young people a scapegoat for problems that they themselves have caused.

Speaking prior to a seminar on youth engagement in the political process at Stormont, Cllr Parsley stated: "Who can be surprised that young people feel less inclined to participate in electoral or party politics, when elected politicians see fit to blame young people for all society's ills.

"The fact is that politicians, from the Prime Minister down, seem intent on picking on young people. A group of young people assembling in public will always be referred to as 'yobs', always seen as 'up to no good', and generally deemed 'a threat'. This is blatantly unfair.

"Every generation has its problems, but let us look at the current generation of young people - more likely to engage in volunteering projects, less likely to smoke, and at the forefront of campaigns for the common good such as 'Make Poverty History' and the 'Anti-Racism Network'.

This is the generation that has the chance to eliminate racism, xenonphobia and even sectarianism.

"All too often it is the older generation of politicians that stand in the way. Even the UK's most senior politician, the Prime Minister, the other day deliberately gave the distinct impression that young people in general were nothing more than 'louts'. This may be populist stuff, it may even win the odd vote short-term, but it is grossly unfair and it is frankly dangerous if we are serious about young people getting involved in the democratic process.

"I would say to any young person in Northern Ireland concerned about this you join me and my young Alliance colleagues. Together we can eliminate the sectarian political system that they have rightly turned their backs on, eliminate populist politics that pick on minorities, and eliminate simplistic notions that fail to give young people the credit so many of them deserve.

"Young people are no less interested in politics than any previous generation -- let us make that interest pay for all our futures."

ENDS