Author Archives: Nathan Hunt

I’m lucky to represent an amazing area as a district and town councillor. Since I was elected at the age of 19, becoming Huntingdonshire’s youngest ever councillor, I’ve had a huge amount of support from the community, friends, family, officers, and councillors of all parties.

At the same time, I’ve also heard every “are you old enough for big trousers?” and “did you finish college last week?” jibe you can imagine.

Let’s be honest – most of the time that’s good humour. Young people in politics are rare, people find it unusual, and people are excited to see a young person engaging with council democracy.

But at times, there is genuine abuse thrown in young people’s direction – for being young. Certain incidents over the past few weeks come to mind for me.

This isn’t anything new, nor is personal abuse in politics generally. But it is getting worse. When I think back to early 2022 when I was trying to convince people to vote for me as a fresh face, they were incredibly welcoming to me (including those who weren’t going to vote for me). Even when people were sick of politics because of the Partygate revelations, I can only remember one or two doorsteps that gave me genuine grief for being young.

Unfortunately, like a lot of stuff in Britain right now – things have gotten worse since then. I’ve faced some pretty vindictive stuff based on my age recently. Nor am I alone in this – this isn’t a localised trend.

And anti-youth abuse is just one part of the massive challenges we’re facing.

Anyone in public office or politics expects to be held to account for our decisions, positions, and actions. That’s the sign of a healthy democracy. But personal abuse, including for being young, goes past this.

I’m incredibly lucky to have a great support network around me – a great council group and local party, friends and family, and the Young Liberals. But this trend just creates an environment where good people are put off from public service because of the toll it takes on them.

So why is this the case? I don’t think we can pin it on something specific. But the political temperature being as high as it is isn’t good for anyone.

And the longer it stays high, kept there by divisive populists, more good people will be driven out of roles of public service due to the abuse they face.