Southend's Youth Mayor takes up her post (From Southend Standard)

It has to be acronym time. My starter would be FMOB!

I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

I popped into Shoebury Youth Centre last night at 6:15 pm. It was locked and 2 adults were propping up the desk. When I asked why it was locked I was told they were getting ready for an adult evening class.
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The one thing this centre lacked was Youth. Perhaps because charges for its use range from 15-25 pounds per hour. This centre cost 2.9 Million and at one point was about to close for lack of use.
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Maybe our token youth mayor will resolve this, I think not.

They make a nice couple.

DogsMessInLeigh wrote:
They make a nice couple.

He wants to 'merge their manifestos'. I s that rude?

Gay Ray wrote:
I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

Of course I can: 2,712 youngsters voted, with an electorate of some 13,500. The highest turnout ever, over 20%. The electorate is every secondary school pupil. Youngsters from every school voted.

This information was supplied in the press release to the Echo, but clearly it was an editorial decision to not include it.

I'm so pleased Gay Ray thinks the whole thing is a load of ****, what an encouragement to our young people.

As the head of a nameless, but certainly not middle class, school said to me: "This sort of thing is great, along with school councils it shows youngsters democracy in action, and allows them to change things."

As Depeche Mode sang:

You can't change the world, But you can change the facts, And when you change the facts, You change points of view, If you change points of view, You may change a vote, And when you change a vote, You may change the world

http://jamescourtena
y.wordpress.com/2013
/02/07/new-youth-may
or-elected/

I got censored by the Echo - another thing off my 'bucket list' - wahoo. :-)

Why can't we vote for our Mayor like the Londoners do?

Because you elect councillors who in turn chose one of them to be Leader (based on the Westminster system). The Leader of the Council is Southend's equivalent of BoJo (not sure who I should apologise to the most for that comparison!). In practice you know who will be Leader, as the leader of the largest party becomes Leader.

The Mayor of Southend is ceremonial only.

The Youth Mayor is different.

is that the son of reg copley the old labour councillor at st lukes ward

he does remind me of a young Boris....maybe in years to come, who knows.

DogsMessInLeigh wrote:
he does remind me of a young Boris....maybe in years to come, who knows.

HOPE HE DONT WANT A AIRPORT IN SOUTHEND

CllrJamesCourtenay wrote:

Gay Ray wrote:
I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

Of course I can: 2,712 youngsters voted, with an electorate of some 13,500. The highest turnout ever, over 20%. The electorate is every secondary school pupil. Youngsters from every school voted.

This information was supplied in the press release to the Echo, but clearly it was an editorial decision to not include it.

I'm so pleased Gay Ray thinks the whole thing is a load of ****, what an encouragement to our young people.

As the head of a nameless, but certainly not middle class, school said to me: "This sort of thing is great, along with school councils it shows youngsters democracy in action, and allows them to change things."

As Depeche Mode sang:

You can't change the world, But you can change the facts, And when you change the facts, You change points of view, If you change points of view, You may change a vote, And when you change a vote, You may change the world

http://jamescourtena

y.wordpress.com/2013

/02/07/new-youth-may

or-elected/

Nice to know that they can change things. I searched the echo archive for 2011 and 2012 with the phrase "youth mayor" to see what had been achieved.

Nebs wrote:

CllrJamesCourtenay wrote:

Gay Ray wrote:
I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

Of course I can: 2,712 youngsters voted, with an electorate of some 13,500. The highest turnout ever, over 20%. The electorate is every secondary school pupil. Youngsters from every school voted.

This information was supplied in the press release to the Echo, but clearly it was an editorial decision to not include it.

I'm so pleased Gay Ray thinks the whole thing is a load of ****, what an encouragement to our young people.

As the head of a nameless, but certainly not middle class, school said to me: "This sort of thing is great, along with school councils it shows youngsters democracy in action, and allows them to change things."

As Depeche Mode sang:

You can't change the world, But you can change the facts, And when you change the facts, You change points of view, If you change points of view, You may change a vote, And when you change a vote, You may change the world

http://jamescourtena


y.wordpress.com/2013


/02/07/new-youth-may


or-elected/

Nice to know that they can change things. I searched the echo archive for 2011 and 2012 with the phrase "youth mayor" to see what had been achieved.

http://www.southend.
gov.uk/news/article/
519/get_the_benefit_
of_a_citizencard

didn't have you down as a chip carrier nebs

Gay Ray wrote:
I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

your posts have become so dull you should rebrand as grey ray

asbo. just the truth wrote:

Gay Ray wrote:
I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

your posts have become so dull you should rebrand as grey ray

or DS WOS

lucy10 wrote:

DogsMessInLeigh wrote:
he does remind me of a young Boris....maybe in years to come, who knows.

HOPE HE DONT WANT A AIRPORT IN SOUTHEND

'AN' airport even

asbo. just the truth wrote:

Gay Ray wrote:
I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

your posts have become so dull you should rebrand as grey ray

Sorry about that. You only get to see the uncontroversial ones. Those that are removed are less grey.
HAGD

CllrJamesCourtenay wrote:

Gay Ray wrote:
I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

Of course I can: 2,712 youngsters voted, with an electorate of some 13,500. The highest turnout ever, over 20%. The electorate is every secondary school pupil. Youngsters from every school voted.

This information was supplied in the press release to the Echo, but clearly it was an editorial decision to not include it.

I'm so pleased Gay Ray thinks the whole thing is a load of ****, what an encouragement to our young people.

As the head of a nameless, but certainly not middle class, school said to me: "This sort of thing is great, along with school councils it shows youngsters democracy in action, and allows them to change things."

As Depeche Mode sang:

You can't change the world, But you can change the facts, And when you change the facts, You change points of view, If you change points of view, You may change a vote, And when you change a vote, You may change the world

http://jamescourtena

y.wordpress.com/2013

/02/07/new-youth-may

or-elected/

Thank you for providing the figures, I was sure someone would. I have to say that I am very much less impressed with the turnout than you seem to be. Given that (presumably) each school had it's own ballot box so minimum effort was required on the part of the electorate to cast their vote I would say that a c.20% turnout was decidedly poor.

Glad to hear you are a follower of the songs of Depeche Mode, I'm more of a Billy Bragg man myself.

@Cllr James Courtenay:

I see in your blog you state "turnout – over 20%, which goes to show that young people really are interested in their local community."

Can you enlighten us as to the number of spoilt ballots that were counted?

I have to say that I'm with Gay Ray on this. One could argue that a 20% turnout actually tends to show that 4 out of 5 young people are not really interested in their community- probably more since I'm sure many of those who bothered to vote did so purely out of a sense of duty to a friend. I personally don't believe that such a large proportion are disinterested in the community, rather that the post of 'Youth Mayor' is meaningless to the vast majority.

Gay Ray wrote:

asbo. just the truth wrote:

Gay Ray wrote:
I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

your posts have become so dull you should rebrand as grey ray

Sorry about that. You only get to see the uncontroversial ones. Those that are removed are less grey.
HAGD

or fifty shades of grey ray.

wonder if they can do anything about dogs poop thats dotted around unattended.

asbo. just the truth wrote:

Nebs wrote:

CllrJamesCourtenay wrote:

Gay Ray wrote:
I'm intrigued. Can anyone point me in the direction of the statistics regarding eligibility for election, eligibility to vote, turnout as a percentage...you know, the usual stuff. I have tried to find the answers using the jolly Google but I don't seem to be any wiser. In the interim I have to say the whole thing sounds like a LOMCB (to give a clue, the M stands for 'Middle' and the C for 'Class'.

Of course I can: 2,712 youngsters voted, with an electorate of some 13,500. The highest turnout ever, over 20%. The electorate is every secondary school pupil. Youngsters from every school voted.

This information was supplied in the press release to the Echo, but clearly it was an editorial decision to not include it.

I'm so pleased Gay Ray thinks the whole thing is a load of ****, what an encouragement to our young people.

As the head of a nameless, but certainly not middle class, school said to me: "This sort of thing is great, along with school councils it shows youngsters democracy in action, and allows them to change things."

As Depeche Mode sang:

You can't change the world, But you can change the facts, And when you change the facts, You change points of view, If you change points of view, You may change a vote, And when you change a vote, You may change the world

http://jamescourtena



y.wordpress.com/2013



/02/07/new-youth-may



or-elected/

Nice to know that they can change things. I searched the echo archive for 2011 and 2012 with the phrase "youth mayor" to see what had been achieved.

http://www.southend.

gov.uk/news/article/

519/get_the_benefit_

of_a_citizencard

didn't have you down as a chip carrier nebs

Sorry, but I'm not convinced about these positions other than something to put on a CV.
With only a 20% turnout it seems about as popular as the police and crime commissioner elections, and if it shows anything it is that the vast majority of school children aren't really interested.

engaging young people in the political process can only be positive. yes the base position of most kids is zero interest because their parents are bone idle should and uneducated. but that should be all the more reason to break the mould.

bone idle and uneducated

In answer to the recent points... I think you over estimate the interest of us "oldies" rather than anything else.

The turnout in Youth Mayoral elections is on the up.

The PCC elections had a turnout of 12.81% in Essex. A turnout of 20something% is, sadly, more akin to a local election result!

It may have been fairly effortless for young people to vote, but even they don't have the option of a postal vote sent to them at home! We did trial electronic voting/text message voting this year, and I think that may be extended/pushed more next year, to encourage another record turnout.

I am sure some people did vote out of duty to a friend/family - But then I'd hope my mum/mineral water drinking buddies would vote for me too(!) but let's be honest, out of 2,700ish votes that isn't going to get someone elected.

I don't have a clue how many spoilt ballot papers there were - I didn't run the election or count the papers myself, one of the council's officers did!

It is a shame that more than a handful of children are more switched on politically than their parents.

I have a feeling this is rigged. Kavi obviously had a better campaign than Chris's and Megan's, Chris having a sh1tty speech in school, along with his unpopularity, but unsure about Megan - doesn't go to my school.

asiancommentor wrote:
I have a feeling this is rigged. Kavi obviously had a better campaign than Chris's and Megan's, Chris having a sh1tty speech in school, along with his unpopularity, but unsure about Megan - doesn't go to my school.

sounds like a bad case of sour grapes to me.