Youngsters! Make your mark – it’s your future

I feel very privileged to have been born into a time where I can choose who I want to be, how I want

to live and who I want to live with. My children are fortunate not to be boxed into conforming to or

accepting someone else’s idea of the ‘right’ gender, sexuality, ethnicity, religion or nationality, but it

is becoming very clear that they will be living through a time of great change.

I like to think of myself as the proverbial ‘man in the street’. A law-abiding citizen who goes about

their business, works hard, pays attention to the news and who wants the best for the future of their

children. Just lately though I’ve been wondering what others of my generation and older actually

want and I worry that they are sending this country down a nationalist, walled-borders path that will

eventually lead to a damaged world economy, uninhabitable land and the curtailment of all those

privileges we currently enjoy.

To the younger voter, it can sometimes seem like these problems are insurmountable. How do we

stop the Brexit steamroller that now only seems to be led by political power-hungry greed? How do

we protect our coastline from rising sea levels? How do we change the way we live to ensure there is

a tomorrow? How do we protect the rights, not only of those who live in Britain today, but also

those who wish to live here in the future?

There are no easy answers but it seems to me that right now is the time to push all the elderly

politicians with their own agendas aside and allow our younger generation to have a voice. Our

media needs to aim the information at those whose futures are going to be most affected and talk to

them in a language that they understand, without bias or influence and without allowing the short-

sighted to repeat the mistakes of history.

A new history needs to be built now.

If our children tell us that they see a brighter future in which the UK is separated from Europe, let’s

make it happen. If they tell us we’re worrying unnecessarily about climate change, then we’ll stop

worrying and live without care for planet Earth and continue to consume resources. If they tell us

that they are happy to leave the decisions to those who won’t actually face the consequences, then

we’ll happily decide for them.

I don’t think they will though.

So I say this to young people of today, you need to take control of this now. This is your future. Your

voice is loud. Your voice is strong. You need to use it in the voting booth…before it is too late.

By Emma Gray