Charlotte Dingle - Lewisham Youth Question Time
27 March 2010
Charlotte Dingle is co-chair of the Young Greens, and a target ward candidate in local elections in Lewisham (Ladywell ward):
This past Wednesday (24th March), the Lewisham Young Citizens' Panel and the Lewisham Young Mayor held a Youth Question Time event. The Lewisham Young Citizens' Panel represents those aged 11-18 who live or work in the borough.
Representatives from the Greens, Labour, Liberal Dems, the Conservatives and the Socialists (all represented on Lewisham Council) were invited to attend the event. The latter two parties declined the invitation, leaving a panel of three to answer the young people's questions.
As Young Greens Co-Chair and Green Party candidate for Ladywell Ward, I was joined on the panel by Lib Dem Cllr Jenny Clutten and Labour Party candidate for Whitefoot Ward David Warwick.
An impressively eloquent and engaged audience asked us questions, on topics ranging from unemployment and job creation to immigration and the BNP.
Warwick, unsurprisingly, came under particular attack, with young people expressing genuine disillusionment with Brown's government.
Clutton, too, was called upon to defend her party and its leader from accusations of weakness and indecision.
Championing Caroline and the Greens felt like a much more rewarding task in comparison!
My points on a less target-driven education system, votes at 16, living wages and 1 million green jobs seemed particularly popular.
Some of the audience seemed surprised to learn just how far outside the environmental remit our policies stretched - not to mention how high the level of human-friendly returns are on many of our green policies!
Despite some cynicism about how effective our proposed methods of paying for some of our policies would be, I felt my responses were generally well received, and I very much hope I helped to inspire a few more Green voters of the future.
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