>”I’ve got a background: I’m LGBT, I’m also disabled, so where do I fit in?”
The fact you mention you don’t sleep with women as if it matters makes me think you probably are a bit too young mate
> So if young people have a positive contribution to bring, why are the underrepresented?
*Probably* because if the bulk of people voting for you are over 40, they’re going to want someone who speaks to their interests, not another generations that they maybe don’t fully understand.
Ironically the same reasons that young people get frustrated at so many older people holding positions of power over them who don’t fully understand *their* world view.
Two sides of the same coin.
She is 25, she can stand for election.
Whether enough people will vote for her … well it is her job to convince them.
Calling people “ridiculous” if they question her suitability is an interesting strategy, but it might work, we will have to see.
The reason young people don’t stand in good stead for elections is pretty simple, at 25 you haven’t had a lot of life experience. Guess what, being a councillor requires you to have plenty of that, along with expertise and maturity. I’m not saying you can’t have this while young, but you would have to demonstrate yourself as excellent when scrutinised in order for people to take you seriously.
Mhairi Black was elected at 20 and seems to be doing alright.
>But she points out that she has grown up during two recessions and Brexit so it’s “clearly not true” to say she lacks life experience.
Does technically existing whilst some things happen count as “life experience”?
Politics needs more young representatives.
Lots more.
The average age of a local Councillor in the UK must be in the high 50s.
I suspect its not a lot lower for MPs.
Right, but nobody is actually stopping you, are they? People can choose not to vote for you based on your age if they want to, that’s democracy. Whining about it isn’t going to persuade very many people you’re mature enough to hold public office.
What the article doesn’t bother to tell you is that council elections in Scotland are under Single Transferable Vote.
The only factor which will influence whether this woman gets elected or not is how highly her party place her in the list and which ward they place her in.
The voters won’t have much of a opinion either way.
I genuinely don’t think it matters how old you are to be voted in as a councillor, my experience with local politics is that if you want to be a councillor there are basically 3 things that you ideally need.
* a few dozen friends who live in the same constituency, so few people vote in local elections that if you can drag them all out you’ll have a good chance of swinging it.
* do you actually have any time to do it.
* are you in the right party that people in the area already vote for.
The reality is older people who have lived in the same area a long while just have a natural advantage because they will have more personal relationships with their neighbours, retired people will have more time to actually do the job and as it’s a rather thankless task, the candidate put forward is likely going to be to the person who agrees to do it, and if two or more people want to do it, then there is likely something else they can run for.
I mean, I don’t care about age, if whoever goes up for election has things I agree with and I think they’re competent then that’s enough for me.
11 comments
> I’m not too young to stand for election
>”I’ve got a background: I’m LGBT, I’m also disabled, so where do I fit in?”
The fact you mention you don’t sleep with women as if it matters makes me think you probably are a bit too young mate
> So if young people have a positive contribution to bring, why are the underrepresented?
*Probably* because if the bulk of people voting for you are over 40, they’re going to want someone who speaks to their interests, not another generations that they maybe don’t fully understand.
Ironically the same reasons that young people get frustrated at so many older people holding positions of power over them who don’t fully understand *their* world view.
Two sides of the same coin.
She is 25, she can stand for election.
Whether enough people will vote for her … well it is her job to convince them.
Calling people “ridiculous” if they question her suitability is an interesting strategy, but it might work, we will have to see.
The reason young people don’t stand in good stead for elections is pretty simple, at 25 you haven’t had a lot of life experience. Guess what, being a councillor requires you to have plenty of that, along with expertise and maturity. I’m not saying you can’t have this while young, but you would have to demonstrate yourself as excellent when scrutinised in order for people to take you seriously.
Mhairi Black was elected at 20 and seems to be doing alright.
>But she points out that she has grown up during two recessions and Brexit so it’s “clearly not true” to say she lacks life experience.
Does technically existing whilst some things happen count as “life experience”?
Politics needs more young representatives.
Lots more.
The average age of a local Councillor in the UK must be in the high 50s.
I suspect its not a lot lower for MPs.
Right, but nobody is actually stopping you, are they? People can choose not to vote for you based on your age if they want to, that’s democracy. Whining about it isn’t going to persuade very many people you’re mature enough to hold public office.
What the article doesn’t bother to tell you is that council elections in Scotland are under Single Transferable Vote.
The only factor which will influence whether this woman gets elected or not is how highly her party place her in the list and which ward they place her in.
The voters won’t have much of a opinion either way.
I genuinely don’t think it matters how old you are to be voted in as a councillor, my experience with local politics is that if you want to be a councillor there are basically 3 things that you ideally need.
* a few dozen friends who live in the same constituency, so few people vote in local elections that if you can drag them all out you’ll have a good chance of swinging it.
* do you actually have any time to do it.
* are you in the right party that people in the area already vote for.
The reality is older people who have lived in the same area a long while just have a natural advantage because they will have more personal relationships with their neighbours, retired people will have more time to actually do the job and as it’s a rather thankless task, the candidate put forward is likely going to be to the person who agrees to do it, and if two or more people want to do it, then there is likely something else they can run for.
I mean, I don’t care about age, if whoever goes up for election has things I agree with and I think they’re competent then that’s enough for me.