CYP Now - Time to hear young people's voices again

One of Gordon Brown's earliest announcements upon becoming Prime Minister was that his government would examine the idea of young people voting at 16 and that the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) would be invited to sit in the House of Commons chamber once a year.

These proclamations promoted me to recall an amusing tale from the precursor of the UKYP more than a decade ago.

Conservative MP Andrew Roe, in association with some Liberal Democrat parliamentarians, had the idea of a large gathering of young people under the title of Heirs to the Millennium. The venue was to be Coventry Cathedral.

An impressive speaker list was proposed, ranging from then health minister Stephen Dorrell and Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes to soon-to-be drugs czar Keith Hellawell and the parents of Leah Betts, who had died from taking ecstasy. In advance of the gathering I received the agenda for the event, which told me I had a 20-minute slot around lunchtime to speak on the social condition of young people in the UK.

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