If you’re good enough, you’re old enough

By Sarah Hayward / @sarah_hayward

At what age do you become politically useful or experienced enough to make a valuable, or indeed valid, contribution? Yesterday Anne Milton, junior health ministers, speculated that 45 was an age at which you “know stuff”. I suspect there might be a lot of people out there who kind of instinctively agree with her and I was reminded of a conversation a had, many many years ago, with a good friend who commented that none of us had gone in to politics.

I contested that, as we were in our early/mid twenties at the time, that there was still plenty of time. And for me, I felt that if I was going to represent people I would need a bit more life experience. I am now a councillor and cabinet member in Camden. Another member of that group of friends has been a special adviser and is now a paid adviser to Labour’s front bench. We’re in our mid-thirties.

There are plenty of younger people active and successful in politics though – because they make a very valuable contribution. The life experience I felt necessary was a direct result of the lens through which I view the world – it’s personal. That doesn’t, or at least shouldn’t, make younger people’s life experience less valid.

The Times (I’d link if it weren’t for the paywall) did an excellent piece yesterday on youth unemployment. One of the featured people was a 21 year old that has already been made redundant twice. Two redundancies at 21. I don’t know how many of our current crop of MPs have ever been made redundant, let alone twice. That experience will have been a very steep and difficult learning curve. And might be very valuable in informing political debate about how we tackle our crisis in youth unemployment.

45 is an age away from the teenagers and 20 somethings who are grappling with unemployment and an uncertain future. Even if things were rosy for the generation that’s leaving school and university now, life experience changes with the generations. The types of industries that exist today compared to when a 45 year old left school. The subjects taught at school. The modern methods of communicating and debating. They’re all vastly different.

Parliament and councils should aim to have a good spread of ages represented in the same way we look at gender, sexuality and ethnic minority representation. The needs of a 20 something leaving uni compared to a retired person in their 70s are very different. But equally valid.

There’s only so much a person can walk a mile in another’s shoes – it’s why we need diverse representation across our communities. We should actively support and encourage the involvement of younger people in politics, not patronise them as too naive to make a contribution. And we certainly shouldn’t rule them out, in a way we’d never consider ruling older people out.

Sarah Hayward also blogs here.