Tomorrow's Wales (Cardiff): And so, Obama has been elected President of the United States. But does the success of his campaign hold any lessons for us here in Wales? In particular, can we learn from the success of his movement for change as we seek our own change to a law-making Parliament for Wales?
The idea that the young have become disinterested in politics is one that has become increasingly accepted as truth over recent years. However, Obama’s success in persuading young people to go out and vote shows that the young are interested in politics if they are inspired, and that their mobilisation can be key in securing change.
One of the findings of the recent research conducted by the Institute of Welsh Politics on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales was that young people are much more pre-devolution that the older generation. The results for the constitutional preference question, when broken down into age groups were as follows:
18-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65-74
75+
Independence
18
11
10
8
10
8
8
Parliament
49
44
43
37
33
33
30
Assembly
19
29
29
31
37
33
35
No Devolution
6
11
12
18
17
23
18
The difference in attitudes between the age groups is marked. While the research showed an average of 48.8% of the population being in favour of giving the Assembly more powers (i.e. chosing either a Parliament or Independence as their most favoured option), the percentage of 18-24 year olds who want more devolution is an astounding 67%. Clearly, the cause of the capaign for a Yes vote in a referendum would be well served if the young could be motivated to turn out and vote for change.
It would appear to us that it should be a core task of the All Wales Convention to engage with young people in Wales and explain to them how a law-making Parliament for Wales would affect their lives, and to draw them into the political debate and electoral process. Combined with effective targeting of this group of voters by the Yes campaign, there would be every reason to be confident of a positive outcome to a referendum.
