ON December 12 Liam Fowley, MSYP for Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley, will finish his teacher training placement and head to his local count, knowing that his ballot paper will not be among the piles of votes being totted up.

Fowley will turn 18 just four weeks after the election. And he is deeply frustrated that though he has campaigned to ensure young people register, been out canvassing and watched every twist and turn of this campaign, he will not have a say – potentially for five years.

“By then I’ll be into my twenties and yet I can’t decide how the country will be run in that time period,” he says. “I just have to sit back and let others decide for me.”

If Fowley could vote, the issues that would really count for him are domestic ones. “Brexit is a priority of course,” he says. “But for me, we need to be looking at running the country too. Once you get an agreement there are still years of trade talks to come. For younger people we need the government to be looking at healthcare and education.”

Arguments made that young people cannot be trusted to make sound judgments are “outrageous”, he claims. “In my opinion it’s just that some parties are scared of what younger people would vote for,”he says.

“They could be voted out if they aren’t focused on issues that younger people care about and replaced by parties that will listen to us. And I’m anxious – this is a huge election and whatever the outcome the landscape of this country can change massively.”

Also waiting anxiously to see what will come is 17-year-old Caitie Dundas, MSYP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch. The stakes here seem high. “One of the biggest, most important things in this election – apart from Brexit, which is overshadowing everything – is the climate,” she says. “It’s so important and especially to young people – it’s to do with where we live, the air we breathe and if we don’t tackle that how can we tackle everything else?”

Her hopes were raised – and quickly dashed – when the amendment that would have seen 16 and 17 years get a vote was not selected.

“I really got more interested in politics when the voting age was lowered in Scotland and I think a lot of other young people would be the same,” she says. She points out one of the SYP’s key aspects is support for Article 12 of the UNCRC – the right for young people to have a say on the issues impacting them.

She goes on: “That’s something I stress when we argue for the right to vote at 16 because it is the embodiment of that right. We have it in Scotland but when it comes to UK Governments we don’t.” That, she says, has to change.

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