Author Archives: Matthew Clark

Young, disabled and believed in

glasgow conference 2014I am young and partially sighted (registered blind so far as law is concerned). At times it can feel as if these factors make me fairly insignificant in economic and political society.

Factually, I have far less economic potential than my parents. What little savings are in my name have been scuppered to get through university. My peers and I face harsher economic prospects with less opportunity to buy and control our own destinies than our parents.

Politically, I am part of a demographic that isn’t valued or represented by the quintessential modern politician, who learning from trends set by 1980s Conservatives (and followed still by that party today) seeks victory based on cold statistics and media spin. It helps them win in a First Past The Post system, but that comes at cost of developing best policy for, including engagement with, and seeking to represent, young people. So many of us cannot vote for being too young, and by voting age not enough young people do vote. So we do not entice this winning obsessive type politician. The system is biased against the future generation, and broken.

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 6 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Simon R
    I'm also rather puzzled by Michael's post to me. In particular, I've said a couple of times that any job guarantee scheme would have to somehow provide for peop...
  • Simon R
    The ONS figures (https://uk.indeed.com/career-advice/pay-salary/average-uk-salary) show £38 600 was the mean gross salary for full-time workers in 2020....
  • Paul Holmes
    @Mick Taylor. What happened post 2010 is an entirely different matter. The best Target Seat campaign in the world would have made little difference to the self ...
  • Paul Holmes
    @Mick Taylor. Except that what you say is totally untrue of the period I referred to. From 1997 to 2001 to 2005 to 2010 the number of Target Seats grew at each ...
  • Mary Fulton
    Nonconformistradical I would define ready as having our candidates in place in all constituencies. I don’t know how far down the road we are on this across t...