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 Supt Raj Kohli |
‘Do not be scared’, MP tells students
Pupils quiz politicians at ‘Question Time’
“DON’T be afraid of the future,” Glenda Jackson MP told sixth formers at Haverstock School as a panel of politicians, pundits and authority figures were challenged over issues ranging from the recession to the use of stop and search powers.
“All my life I lived under an enormous national debt (from the Second World War) – during that 61-year period the opportunities presented to me were amazing, outstanding.
“There will be opportunities for you: don’t be afraid.”
A Question Time-style meeting on Thursday night became an interrogation of the relationship between youth and authority.
Under the chairmanship of politics student Mohamed Abdisalem (afterwards compared favourably with David Dimbleby) Ms Jackson was joined on the panel by Camden police’s Supt Raj Kohli, Citizenship Foundation boss Tony Breslin, Amnesty’s Catherine Billingham, Camden’s City Hall representative Brian Coleman, and Lib Dem councillor Nick Russell.
“How do you respond to the fact that young people feel they are stereotyped by the police, for example through stop-and-search?” asked sixth-former Khadra Ahmed, 16, while a second questioner sparked the most vivid debate of the night by asking whether alleged police brutality at the G20 protests “would be swept under the carpet”.
Supt Kohli said: “If you feel that my police officers are racist or ageist, let me know.”
Jahida Miah, 16, asked: “Considering voter apathy in the UK, how will political parties attract young voters?”
Ms Jackson turned the question back on her, warning that unless young people voted, “the most illiberal, the most extreme, the most right-wing parties will be only too willing to rush in to fill that gap”.
“Nature abhors a vacuum,” she said. |
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