Insider
Politics
Of course I needed to ask him
about the good and the bad
parts of being an MP. For the
positives, he gave me a perfect-
ly reasonable answer: ‘Yeah so
there are aspects that I love
about the job that you are able
to help shape the direction of
the country and your constitu-
ency and playing a part in gov-
ernment policy and changes in
the law and being able to help
individual constituents.’.
‘The frustrating elements, and
there are several, is how long
some things take to achieve and
also you can’t help everybody.
There are some people who
come to you with an issue ei-
ther far too late, as sort of a
last resort, or others you can’t
help because the matter is just
too complex.’ I have to say, I’m
sure there were some more rea-
sons why being an MP is hard
but I’m not sure any MP is will-
ing to divulge such information.
Alas, it may be used against
them.
Perhaps one of the most sur-
prising aspects of his life that I
learnt is that he did not enjoy
so much the academic side of
school but that he loved drama.
Sharing that he ‘was absolutely
in the school plays’, and that he
had quite a few solos and
bravely admitted that if you go
on YouTube there will be some
embarrassing videos- I say he
uses that in his next election
campaign, it might bring in the
youth vote- or at least get some
of that coveted media coverage.
Speaking of the youth vote, I
asked his opinion on why he
thinks that 18 to 25-year olds
are statistically unlikely to vote
in any elections. To which he
gave me a very honest answer-
‘I don’t know the answer, per
say, why, it’s not often as low
as people perceive it to be.
When I speak to young people
they are very politically en-
gaged so I
There should be a
basic level of un-
derstanding of
why it’s important
to vote.
don’t really understand
why they don’t.’ Which is
actually something I
agree strongly with. Why
younger people don’t vote
truly baffles me, I guess
it’s hard for someone who
is politically engaged to
understand why others
are not.
Which again brings me
onto the next question I
asked about politics being
a compulsory subject in
schools. As to which he
responded: ‘I don’t think
politics, per say, should
be, but I think political
awareness should be.
There should be a basic
level of understanding of
why it’s important to
vote.’ Which once again I
agree with. He also gave
me words that’ll please
the feminists out there,
that schools should also
teach the steps women
took to attain the vote-
which is of course a key
part of our modern histo-
ry.
One of the main ques-
tions I had wanted to ask
right from the first en-
quiring email was his
opinion on lowering the
voting age to 16. I could
tell he was choosing his
words carefully. That
might have something to
do with the fact that a 16
-year-old was staring at
him recording his every
word. To sum up, no, Will
Quince does not think
that 16-year olds should
have the vote.
To be fair to him though,
his reasoning was fairly
logical. He said that there
is confused messaging for
young people about what
they can and can’t do and
what adulthood is. One ex-
ample he gave me was
that ‘The same people that
are saying we should lower
the voting age to 16 are
now saying that we should
raise the smoking age to
21’. He also proceeded to
list the many things that
16-year olds cannot do,
due to the law.
Although he was a lot
more forthcoming with his
solid ‘no’ that 16-year olds
should not have voted in
the Brexit referendum,
saying we couldn’t just
‘cherry pick’ what people
can vote in, we needed to
do it across the board.
In line with the theme of
students I questioned him
on how the 2010 coalition
Government tripled the
university fees to £9250
and Jeremy Corbyn’s plan
for lowering the fees. He
did agree that we need a
complete ‘overhaul’ of the
way our university fee sys-
tem works, believing that
the amount it currently is
at is too high, but that
there are ‘pros and cons to
the system that we do
have’. He was insistent
that we have some of the
best funded universities in
the world, and that no up-
front cost has meant that
more people from low in-
come backgrounds are go-
ing than ever before.
‘When I speak to
young people they
are very politically
engaged’
The College magazine online: sixthformmag.blogspot.co.uk