Some CFers may want to get involved with this year’s Schools Question Time:
Schools Question Time is a Political Literacy and Citizenship Life Skills initiative supported by Parliament’s Education Service, the Institute for Citizenship and the BBC. The initiative is designed to provide a unique chance for young people to participate in activities which will encourage them to become active and informed citizens.
There are two strands to the initiative:
Schools Question Time Challenge – Applications for 2009/2010 are now open (until 15th November 2009)

An opportunity to put on your own Question Time …

Mock elections were held in schools across the United Kingdom on June 4th and today the results show the Conservatives gained 17 MEPs coming top, with Labour coming fourth, and the Liberal Democrats sixth.

Conservative Future has been working to support candidates in several schools and we are thrilled that so many young people got involved, and are taking an interest in politics.

Dominic McDonough, Sunderland CF Chairman, yesterday launched the ‘Youth Vote’ campaign in Sunderland.

The campaign which will be running throughout the Region will encourage young people to go out and vote in the European, Local and General elections.

Our campaign will take us into local schools, colleges and youth groups where we will emphasize the importance of voting as a young person and the links between voting and democracy.

BBC Hereford and Worcester Debate @ Hereford Sixth Form College

This was a debate with first time voters at the Hereford Sixth Form College last Wednesday which I was invited to participate in as a student rather than a member and Officer of my local Conservative Future Branch.

The official topic was the imminent European Elections – but we covered many others issues during the recording including the MPs expense scandal and unfortunate rise in BNP popularity.

Our friends at The Adam Smith Institute also put a strong focus on encouraging young people to become engaged within politics, as such, organise a varied program of events for students. Most recently launched is their essay competition, ‘Young Writer on Liberty 2009′:
To enter you will have to write three different articles on the subject of:
The Three Greatest Threats to Liberty in 21st Century Britain
The title of each article is entirely up to you.
1ST PRIZE:
- £500 cash prize
- 3 articles published on www.adamsmith.org/blog
- 3 books on the subject of liberty
- …

On the same day we launch our Schools page I want to highlight a campaign that is trying to improve political education for young people:
kNow Vote
Young people learn algebra and atomic physics in school, but they are not even taught the basics about voting or the political system.
kNOw Vote is a campaign to raise awareness about this lack of political education. Britain’s future voters remain ignorant about even the fundamentals of party policy.
The campaign is in association with the Media School at Bournemouth University and Channel 4’s Battlefront. We intend …

In just over 3 weeks there will be local and European elections on June 4th. There will also be mock elections taking place in schools across the United Kingdom.

These elections are being organised by the Hansard Society, under the name Y Vote Mock Elections.

Today Conservative Future has launched a page on its website focusing on schools and these mock elections.