Hear, hear! Bristol teenagers join first Youth Parliament at House of Commons

Teenagers from the Bristol area took part in the first ever Youth Parliament debate at the House of Commons.

Hamza Riaz, 14, is the Member of Youth Parliament for Bristol East Central, and Fred Cotterill, 15, is the MYP for Bath and North East Somerset.

They were among the first people other than MPs to debate in the chamber last week, in what Speaker John Bercow described as a "historic occasion".

More than 300 MYPs aged between 12 and 18 took part in a series of debates on issues like free university education, youth crime, the economy and lowering the voting age.

Fred said: "We don't have the right to vote, which often leads to politicians ignoring us for the sake of gathering support elsewhere.

"Votes at 16 was one of the issues we debated during the course of the day, and the one that eventually won with the most votes at the end, closely followed by capitalism, the economy and jobs for young people.

"We've seen what happened to the lost generations of the Thatcher years, and I'm not prepared to let the Government get away with using more young people as economic cannon fodder.

"UKYP might not be the most powerful institution in Britain, but with the enthusiasm, passion and eloquence shown by young people in the chamber, I think we'll have no problem making our voices heard in the future."

Hamza described the experience as "awesome".

She said: "There was a real buzz of excitement as we took our places on the famous green benches and I felt a bit awed as I looked around and thought about the influence that this little chamber has had on the history of the UK and the world.

"The chamber was much smaller than I expected it to be and I did feel a bit nervous of the cameras and the many eyes scrutinising us from the gallery and beyond.

"Looking around the historic chamber, it was the first time I had seen all 300 elected MYPs together and I was proud of how representative we were of young people across the UK.

"In fact one of the young people in Bristol East Central came up to me and said: 'As a young guy from the inner city, I can't relate to those MPs making big speeches in London. But when I saw people just like me, talking about things that I was worried about, it made me feel interested and I really felt that I could take part in it.'

"Job done then, I thought."