Thousands join forces and step up to #xxvote
Frustrated with being constantly ignored by politicians, young women across the country have formed the #xxvote campaign to encourage more 18-25s to register to vote.
‘I’m sick of fares rising, zero-hour contracts, the NHS cuts, youth clubs closing, taxes going up and the rich getting away with everything … we need to do something about it!’ says Shahlaa, presenter on Reprezent FM.
With only 39 per cent of women aged 18-24 voting at the last general election, young women are the least likely group to turn out to vote. Many of these savvy millennials have made the connection between low voter turnout and things being more and more unfair for their generation.
‘It isn’t rocket science to figure out why the elderly get to keep all of their universal benefits when 80 per cent of over 65s vote’, notes Ruby, Editor of Amor magazine. All this while young people get hammered by more cuts, from the Prime Minister’s pledge to remove housing benefit from those aged under 21, to the rise in student fees to £9,000 and slashes to further education funding.
Consider also that with only 148 female MPs out of 650 (23 per cent), there are few members of the House of Commons with personal experience of the issues young women voters face, and who young women can relate to.
With the deadline for registration coming up on the 20th of April, time is running out. The group involved in the campaign made a powerful film to make more of their peers aware of the straight line between the marginalising of young people in policy decisions and the reluctance of young voters to take an active role – and how young women in particular could suffer.
We need a warning of how bad things will get if we carry on down the same path. Hannah, director of the #XXVOTE film says: ‘This film shows a hint of what the future could look like if young women continue to be disengaged from politics. It is a scary world which is already beginning to play out’.
‘Youth Media in the UK has been undervalued for too long. The time is right for the Youth Media Agency’, Lord Puttnam CBE Producer of Chariots of Fire
Susana Giner, Director
07951 242 301
Hannah Vincent, Project Manager
07894 429 924
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