Activist: Tell us who you are, how old you are, that kind of thing.
Caitlen: I’m Caitlen , I’m 17 years old, I live in Stafford and I am doing A-levels in French, Music and English Lit/Lang. And I’m a member of Youth Parliament as well.
Activist: What does that involve?
Caitlen: Well basically, Youth Parliament is a national organisation that is quite youth driven. It’s an organisation to raise young people’s voices to campaign against the injustice that happens against young people in this country. So, for example, one of our campaigns is for a National Concession Card for free transport for under-18s so that young people can get to places and can do more things like that, cos we think it’s right that young people should be able to transport themselves to places.
Activist: And you went to see your MP. Who is your local MP?
Caitlen: My local MP is David Kidney. He is the Member of Parliament for Stafford and the surrounding areas. I believe he is also the PPS to the Minister for Transport as well.
Activist: And what did you say to him when you went to meet him?
Caitlen: Well I’ve met him on a number of occasions. The last time I met him I was discussing with him the recycling issue in Staffordshire. One of the things I’m really passionate about is putting recycling facilities into schools. I believe recycling should start in schools so that we can encourage young people to recycle at home and encourage families to recycle from that.
Because he knows I’m passionate about the environment he’s put me forward for the Climate Change champion, and it was actually him who encouraged me to stand for the Youth Parliament. So I’ve been to him on a number of occasions for things like transport and I’ve also been discussing with him what the government is doing to improve the life of people who have been trafficked and the new law that they’re hoping to bring in.
Activist: When you first went to meet him, how did you feel?
Caitlen: If I’m honest I was a bit nervous because I know that a lot of MPs don’t really care about young people, they don’t really care about their voices. But my MP does. And I thought it was really great because the first time I met him it was to talk about going into politics. I really felt that God was calling me into something and I didn’t know what. I met this lady from Zimbabwe in school – she was covering for a lesson – and she said to me that she was scared about her family being there still. And that was the first real interaction I had with politics affecting someone, and it was amazing really because I felt so passionately about this woman’s family in Zimbabwe and I’d only just met this woman and I really wanted to help her. So I thought that politics would be a really good way into it. So I went to discuss with him all about politics, and from there he gave me some information all about putting forward a petition. So I went and made my own petition for Make Poverty History as well – so he really did help me get into politics.
Activist: When you’ve been to see him on subsequent occasions what have you chatted to him about?
Caitlen: Well he’s quite passionate about the environment as well so I’ve actually been able to do work experience with him which was an amazing opportunity. I did work experience the week after Gordon Brown became Prime Minister and I saw the first speech by Harient Harman as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. That was amazing to see that. I really got to see what the life of an MP was actually like. I was quite lucky because not only did I go to London, but I also stayed in Stafford so I was able to go to the opening of an Eco-quad at a local primary school and also to the opening of a memorial on the outskirts of town. So it was really interesting to see him at work – not only in Westminster where he’s raising his constituent’s voices – but also in Stafford where he’s carrying out things.
Activist: What would you say to another young person who’s considering going to visit their MP but is thinking ‘what’s the point?’ What would you say to them?
Caitlen: I would say ‘go for it.’ Because the thing is, in a few years time, this MP will need your vote. And they’ve got to listen to young people because we are the future of this country and if they don’t listen to us, who else will they be able to listen to?
Activist: How do you feel your faith might affect how you go about speaking out on issues of injustice?
Caitlen: If anything I think my faith stirs me on. I think because I’ve got God on my side I can be so nervous going to speak in front of people, but I know that, with him, it’ll be for him. And I know that there’s so much injustice in this world and I really want to speak out because our God is a God of love and he is a God of justice, and we really need to speak out about these issues because he calls us to do it.