What are Politicians able to deliver for the next generation of voters?

We are delighted to announce the winner of our annual Student Blog Competition in which students, aged 16-19 in full time secondary education, were invited to submit a blog of maximum 600 words on the subject: What are politicians able to deliver for the next generation of voters?

From amongst a strong field of 90 entries, our congratulations go to this year’s winner Evelyn Field from Calderstones School. The judges commented on Evelyn’s blog: this student answered the question with a focus on approaches and topics required by politicians to engage young people – of “progressivism, representation and meaningful engagement” including topics such as mental health, housing and climate. She also turned the competitions challenge on its head with a call to her generation: the question that should be asked is not what politicians are able to deliver but what the next generation can push the politicians to provide.

As well as featuring on the PSA website, Evelyn’s blog will also be published online by the Financial Times, our partners in this competition, and printed in a future edition of the PSAs magazine Political Insight.

Why should you consider studying Politics at University?

Professor Stuart Wilks-Heeg, from the University of Liverpool gave his top five reasons during the event:

First, if you’re reading this, you are presumably interested in Politics. To study a subject for three years or more, you ideally need to enjoy it, so being interested is a great start.
Second, Politics matters. It affects all our lives, every day, in ways great and small. I can’t promise that studying Politics will enable you to change the world, but I can promise that you’ll end up understanding it a lot better.
Third, and don’t underestimate this one, if you study Politics, your family and friends will always ask you to explain things to them. When there’s an election or some big political event, almost everyone suddenly gets at least a bit curious about Politics. If you can help others make sense of it all, you’ll be contributing to the greater democratic good.
Fourth, studying Politics qualifies you to do a lot of things in later life. Very few Politics graduates become politicians – rather more become journalists, civil servants, campaigners, regulators or, even, teachers of politics. What you learn on a Politics degree will be transferable to all manner of other contexts and professions.
Finally, there are lots of options for studying Politics. There are 80 or 90 universities where you can study Politics in the UK, and within each of those degrees you will be able to specialise in the aspects of Politics that inspire you most, whether that’s Plato’s political thought, proportional representation, or the study of war and peace (not the book). Whatever it is the draws you to Politics, you’ll find it somewhere in a degree course – and a lot more besides.

We also congratulate the two runners up: Frederick Robertson, Derby Cathedral School, and Aditya Jain, SJI International Singapore.

The top ten shortlisted blogs, scored by the judges from the PSA and the Financial Times, were selected by a panel of academics organised by Dr Andrew Roe-Crines, Senior Lecturer in British Politics at the University of Liverpool.

The judges were impressed with the standard and the range of well thought out ideas evident in the blogs submitted for this year’s competition, and we thank all the students who took the time to submit their blog.