If you are a young person who is interested in politics you might want to join http://www.bitetheballot.co.uk/ I interviewed Michael Sani to find out more….
How did Bite the ballot come about?
Bite the Ballot started in a classroom at Wilmington Enterprise College when a group of sixth formers made it apparent they would not be taking up the opportunity to cast their vote in the General Election. Once they realised the power of their vote and the importance of having their say we set out engaging others and our campaign grew and grew.
Tell me about the campaign so far.
We have gone from a small group of young people sharing their opinions to a whole host of everyday young people helping our campaign reach out to inspire others across the UK. It really is inspiring to see as we demolish the stereotypical vision of young people not caring about what goes on around them. Our mission is to inspire more people to become involved and we set our sights on holding an event in parliament where everyday young people can come in and take part.
The aim of the day is for young people, MP’s and Lords to discuss together ways in which we can move forward and ensure more and more First Time Voters are voicing their vote.
The press has been amazing and this group of sixth formers have been on LBC Radio, BBC Radio Kent, had articles in many local newspapers and even a slot on The Politics Show on BBC1, where I was later told that show had a 25% increase in viewers.
We are delighted with the progress and are always working to increase our following by allowing the young people around us to design our plans of engaging others so it really is young people working to attract young people.
What kind of support have you had?
The support has been amazing, obviously the press but also from kep organizations and companies like Hansard and Apple who, are in fact, training the team on how to do podcasts so we can have updates available for people to listen too. You can see the different people involved now on our website.
We have had a variety of support from MP’s and Lord who are keen to ensure our campaign succeeds but without fail the most exciting thing to date was meeting The Deputy Prime Minister and telling him of our palms and hearing his belief and support in our campaign what we are trying to achieve.
Has it died down since the election?
Far from it, I did think things may of died down but with the Coalition and a “Changing politics” we have gone from strength to strength and witnessed the fact that many young people want to be involved, but do not feel as though they know enough about politics to have their say. It is clear that not enough is done within Schools to ensure young people are educated but more importantly engaged so we hope our documentary recording our journey from start to present day can be used within schools to inspire others.
Where next?
We embark on our new opportunities including our new association with the 2012 games to bring people the latest news on whats going on, what legacies young people can help promote and how they can get involved. We now have our debate in Parliament which is on Wednesday 17 November at 7pm, and we will offer a variety of people the chance to come along so remain up to date with our campaign on our website and social networking sites.
What can people do?
Send us your footage, share your thoughts and opinions on the Facebook site, register to vote and become part of our campaign and together we will make history. We have already seen many of tomorrows generation speak directly with today’s leaders and it is great to witness. With more support who know what we could achieve?