This was the question asked of students, aged 16-19 in full time secondary education, who were invited to respond by submitting a blog to the annual PSA/FT Student Blog Competition, supported by ShoutOut UK. 

The judges were impressed with the high standard and interesting perspectives of responses to this question. They expressed their hope that the students will continue to develop the knowledge and skills demonstrated in their submissions. 

From this strong field, our congratulations go to this year’s winner: Michaela Amiekhai, age 16, from Harris Chobham Academy

Michaela was invited to read her blog at an event in Parliament on 9 June with the theme of “Listening Better: Polling, Misinformation, and Democratic Engagement”. 

You can read her winning blog here and it will be published online on the Financial Times’ FT for Schools website.

We also congratulate our runners up: Michael Dagnachew, age 17, from St Thomas More Catholic School, and Sanjana Bathala, age 18, from Withington Girls’ School who were also invited to the event.  

Thank you to our judges: Stephen Bush, Associate Editor and columnist at the Financial Times; Dr Ana Nunes, Nottingham Trent University and PSA Trustee; and Amelia Fairney, Head of Strategy and Communications at Shout-Out UK 

And our thanks, of course, to all the students who entered. We wish you every success in the future and do check out the PSA’s guide to Studying Politics & International Relations at University.