If a young person’s opinion falls into the political sphere, does it make a sound?

There’s a lot of talk around the Party at the moment about ‘Generation Y.’ I suppose I fit into that category, although I don’t think I’ve ever used it to describe myself. Gen Y or whatever, what’s become clear to me over the years is that I’m one of the weirder ones.

I’ve worked since the age of 16, doing jobs from working behind a pharmacy counter to fundraising in a call centre to translating for a construction company. I’ve been an active UCATT member and I’m now training to be a primary school teacher.

But when I talk to people at work, or to my mates down the pub or even to the young people who answer the door, bemused, when I door-knock for Labour, if I’m chatting about politics I always hear the standard chorus of: ‘there’s no point, they’re all the same,’ that politics is ‘boring’ and people are ‘only in it for themselves.’

If I ask about issues they care about, those same young people have an opinion. They know what they think and they care about the world around them, but at no point do they mention ‘politics’ or ‘Labour’ as a solution or a way to change things.

That’s probably why young people are less likely to vote than, for example, over 65s.

That’s a problem. And not just a problem for Young Labour but for the Party and democracy as a whole.

That’s why I’m involved in a project called ‘Get Real’ which is being organised by the Young Labour Trade Union Network.

If we want more young people to consider voting Labour, let alone getting involved in the Party, we need to change the way we communicate and, if we’re honest, what we say in the first place.

A lot of time and energy is spent recruiting university students to Labour. There’s great organisation on campuses and plenty of resources to do that, and obviously it’s important – but we need to do more to speak to young working people in their workplaces and their communities. After all, there are far more.

That’s what we hope to achieve through “Get Real”.

Over recent months we’ve been travelling the country, knocking on doors in marginal seats and speaking to fellow Party members about what it means to be a young member in their area. We’ve made over 10,000 contacts for Labour candidates but just as importantly, we’ve spoken to hundreds of young people both in and out of the Party.

Many of the successes of Labour governments became things that were always there for people in my generation. Many didn’t realise that a political decision was taken by a Labour government to create the NHS, but most know there are political decisions being made by this government to pull it apart. Young people are angry – Labour can be the solution.

It’s a big task ahead for Lisa Nandy and Ivan Lewis to come up with a strategy to connect with young people, but there has never been a better time to try.

We have a chance to say to people ‘we care what you think, come and get involved.’

In the coming weeks and months we’re going to be launching surveys, polls and events to find out what young people and Young Labour members think about politics but most importantly, we’re going to ask what we can do as a movement to be more relevant to them.

Want to get involved? Click here to take a survey or to sign up for updates.

Caroline is a Trade Union representative on the Young Labour national committee.