Tideway School, Southdown Road, Newhaven, East Sussex, BN9 9JL.
UK Youth Parliament
Online Democracy
The UK Youth Parliament was launched at the House of Commons in July 1999. It held its first sitting in February 2001 in London. There are currently over 300 elected Members of the Youth Parliament. MYPs work to establish the burning local, regional and national issues, and then tackle them through targeted campaigns.
In November 2006 all students in Tideway School had the opportunity to vote online, using the school Learning Platform, for candidates for the UK Youth Parliament.
The UKYP area has a Message Forum where candidates can be asked questions by the voters (Tideway students).
An Information area contains election manifestos from the candidates and a PowerPoint presentation about the UKYP.
Discussions in school have mirrored some of the national debate surrounding online voting. Does it somehow debase and trivialise the voting process? Does the very act of going into a polling booth and crossing a piece of paper lead to more of a connection with political decision making than the click of a mouse button? Is the system open to abuse?
Student votes were anonymous and the results exported in Excel format.
“As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy.” Abraham Lincoln
