As a young voter, I am becoming increasingly concerned about the distance increasing between our politicians and citizens.
For me, Brexit was a bad decision and I feel as though the public weren’t fully informed about both choices before the vote took place. Of course, this is only where the distance began.
In the 2017 General Election, young people turned out in greater numbers than ever to have their say about the country’s future. The Conversatives were definitely dishevelled somewhat, but Theresa May clung to power by the skin of her teeth - in an interesting partnership with the DUP.
As a young Londoner, I also see little progress in our City. What is actually happening? All this talk but where is the action?
That’s why I was recently very refreshed and inspired to see entrepreneur Charlie Mullins of Pimlico Plumbers come out and say he’ll independently run for London Mayor at the next mayoral election. Isn’t it about time we had some common sense in our politics?
I know as a businessperson myself who has made it through the ranks since being a teenager, championing enterprise and wanting to break down toothless policy in order to help ordinary people like me get results, that this experience is worth gold in the political world. I just hope someone like Charlie does not get overshadowed. Career politicians need to get out of the way, look at the way Theresa, Boris and several others went ‘360’ on their opinions about Brexit to creep their way through the echelons Parliament.
Charlie himself said in a recent interview: ‘I want to put some common sense back into politics. We need jobs for young people, barriers to be removed and for us to have some pride in our city.’ He talked about how he feels Mayor Sadiq Khan has no backbone and that we need some personality and grit in our politics. I agree.
I said it at the time and I still feel the same way, robotic speeches from Theresa May and her cronies are not doing our country any good. The most personality she ever showed was her amusing attempt at eating fish and chips. And even that didn’t quite happen successfully.
Getting people into work is a serious issue at the moment. Whilst unemployment figures go slightly down or remain a flat, I am sure the morale of the country will improve if more people were in productive, sustainable work. Young people need the encouragement and support from their politicians and cities to get into work too. The value of University is now being brought into question again; I can only think the Conversatives cottoned onto this issue after Jeremy Corbyn rightly brought it up in his own way during the election campaign last year.
Having a businessperson who’s been there and done it, played their part in society and knows how the systems work in reality in our communities is vital in our floundering society.
Let’s see what happens, but what I do know for sure right now is that politics need a shake-up.