Gloucestershire UK Youth Parliament make history in Northern Ireland
Written by Shaun Moore on July 23, 2010
This weekend hundreds of Members of UK Youth Parliament travel to Belfast to take part in a national youth summit. For the first time in its history, the UK Youth Parliament will be holding its annual sitting in Northern Ireland. Over 300 Members of Youth Parliament, including 37 from the South West, aged 11-18, will gather together to address the issues that matter most to young people.
Siobhan Brasier, 17, South West UKYP Procedures Group Representative based in Gloucestershire, commented,
“I am extremely excited about going to the sitting, I attended last year and it was amazing to see so many young people from all sorts of backgrounds having fun while doing great things for young people. The annual sitting really captures what the UK Youth parliament is about because we’re not ‘mini MPs’ we are just passionate young people hoping to make a change. I really hope this year the annual sitting gets lots of attention to show the full potential of every young person there, but more important I hope the MYPs have a positive weekend for themselves and the young people in their areas who voted them in, while having fun at the same time!”
The four day summit will see debates on the environment, health, crime and education. Other issues expected to top the agenda include lowering the voting age to 16, and transport provision for young people. As part of the summit, the Members of UK Youth Parliament will visit Stormont Castle and hear from a number of high profile speakers.
Alex Huston, 16 years-old, from Belfast, said,
“The UK Youth Parliament is a wonderful institution for the young people of this country. It is great that the Annual Sitting for the Parliament is being held in Northern Ireland, and shows how far Northern Ireland has come.”
Andy Hamflett, Chief Executive of the UK Youth Parliament, said,
“We are seriously thrilled to be holding our Annual Sitting in Northern Ireland for the first time, and during preparations have already been made to feel hugely welcome. Despite the financial pressures everywhere, we’ll have more delegates attending this Annual Sitting than ever before, which just goes to show how important youth democracy and engagement is seen to be. We look forward to a fantastic, vibrant and positive weekend learning from young people and helping to provide them with more high profile opportunities to have their voices heard.”
