EDITORIAL: Young people will not tolerate tokenism

At a national level, one of the success stories has been the UK Youth Parliament, which has successfully lobbied in areas such as getting the Government to at least look again at the possibility of a national minimum wage for 16- to 17-year-olds. Awareness of the youth parliament is still low in some parts of the country, with a consequently low number of young people voting. Other areas show what can be achieved, however. More than 25,000 young people in Kent voted for their representatives. The UK Youth Parliament is the nearest thing that we have to a national, democratically elected representative body for young people. Its budget, made up mostly of a 160,000 grant from the Children and Young People's Unit, barely stretches to pay for a small national office.