On 31 January 2013, I visited Heart of England School and Arden Academy in the Meriden constituency. The teachers I met were extremely welcoming and helped make the visit very enjoyable.
I made these visits because if we don't involve young people in politics today, they run the risk of having serious decisions made for them without their voices being heard: from huge tuition fees to a lack of affordable homes. This is a huge problem. I wanted to tell the pupils why I thought politics was relevant to them, including the issues of job creation, investment in the arts and broader economic matters impacting on them individually.
I was delighted to see that many students at both had razor sharp political minds and it was a credit to both schools. I was put through my paces on questions regarding immigration, membership of the EU, austerity, taxes and treatment of entrepreneurs, Labour and its factions, the chances of Labour winning in Solihull and Meriden, whether MPs should be able to act outside of the whip, what specific things Labour would invest in - the list goes on. Hopefully we will see many of the pupils engage in the local elections in May 2014.
Arden
Heart of England
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