Young people on a par with prisoners in Parliament debate

I have just written a story about MPs voting to allow the UK Youth Parliament to sit in the House of Commons last night. Having ploughed my way through the full Hansard debate I felt I must share some of the choicer contributions by MPs that I didn't have room for in the story (which is still probably a bit too long).

Christopher Chope (Christchurch) (Con) expressed his concerns at how the UK Youth Parliament might behave if they were allowed through the hallowed doors of the chamber (where, incidentally, a girl from my primary school was once sick when we went on a tour of the building). Cherry picking madly from a report of the last UKYP sitting, he read out extracts like "the crowd competed ferociously to give their regional rep the loudest cheers!"  to give the impression that a sitting of the UKYP is comparable to a gathering of over-excited holiday reps. He didn't seem to countenance the idea that the young people might adapt their event to their surroundings.

Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con) said the idea that "we have to allow the Youth Parliament to use the Chamber to inspire its members to get into politics is nonsense. The fact that they are already members of the Youth parliament shows they are already interested in politics." As several MPs including Labour MP for Bristol Kerry McCarthy pointed out later, this idea itself is nonsense - giving the UKYP the opportunity to sit in the House of Commons will inspire other young people who hear about it, as well as showing a wider constituency of young people that the Government respects and has time for the representatives that they have elected.

Now, this is a good one. Chope, trying to get the House to agree to his amendment that the UKYP be allowed to meet in one of the committee rooms instead of the hallowed chamber, came close to identifying the young people with the armed force that entered the House with King Charles I to arrest MPs, by pointing out that the committee room had a picture of that scene. "The mere fact of members of the Youth Parliament going into that historic Committee Room and having explained to them the background to that painting would enable them to have a better understanding of the privileges associated with the House." (ie, no-one can sit on the benches apart from elected members).

Chope again, asked how many young people he had consulted about his amendment, said he had two gap year students in his office and two teenage children. "With the exception of one person I have found among young people only those on my side of the argument." So that would be three young people then?

Gerald Howarth (Aldershot) (Con): "This Chamber is not a toy. The idea behind the move is a cheap gimmick to try to court the vote of the youth."

The nadir of the debate possibly came when Jeremy Browne (Taunton) (LibDem) suggested that letting the UKYP use the chamber because they could not stand for election (the reason given for why they should be allowed to use the chamber when other groups were not) was on a par with letting groups of prisoners hold events there. "The hon. Gentleman refers to people being allowed to sit and debate in this Chamber if they are not eligible to stand at a general election. Does he think that if a group of prisoners were to put themselves forward as wanting to discuss matters of penal reform, they could gather in this Chamber and we would be encouraging a constructive debate on penal reform? After all, they would not be allowed to participate in an election, so would it be a constructive exercise?"

But there was a lot of encouraging comment too. I like this from shadow children's minister Tim Loughton: "What are we scared of? Why do we apparently assume that Youth Parliament members will misbehave? Do we seriously think that they will leave gum under the seats and swing from the chandeliers, or that we will have to install jukeboxes and that there will be a major chav riot? Of course that is not going to happen. We are not going to have to install BMX bike ramps here, or revolving glitter balls on the ceiling. We can go about our normal business without having to move the furniture around."

And this from Labour MP Michael Jabez Foster (Hastings and Rye): "We expect young people to respect us; I hope that we will not show disrespect to young people through this sort of charade, which has everything to do with preciousness and nothing to do with democracy."

So anyway, hopefully young people will take a look at who voted against this motion and show them what they think of them at the ballot box when they are able to vote - or before that through letters. In fact, I'm off to add a list of them to the news story.