Big Society's Big Mouth Powered by v

Being inspired by Onyere's blog I decided to write my own about the 21st Century Activist event organised by the Big Society's Big Mouth and the Parliamentary Outreach on the 23rd May.

So, it was a really early start for me that morning, having to wake up at around 4.30am (although I must admit I snoozed my alarm at least 3 times and got up at 5.00) to catch a train at 6.30am from Newcastle to London! The train journey was ok, but slightly boring and after 3 hours, a 20min delay, and a journey from King's Cross on the Tube, I finally arrived at Westminster.

Spending about 5 minutes trying to persuade the police officers that I was going to a meeting at the Westminster Abbey, I spoke to Kate who pointed out that the session was at 1 Parliament street...oups...slightly embarrassed, but also disappointed since they were about to let me in, I marched towards the actual building, missing it too and then finally noticing Kate.

The event itself went really well, with lots of interesting facts about the parliament, it's structure, the difference between parliament and government (which is actually pretty big) and most importantly useful tools on lobbying the government and getting your voice heard in the best way. It was a day packed with info, action and lots of Danish pastry (mmm...).

I also met some pretty awesome people with pretty awesome (and sometimes radical, Rash) ideas! Our campaign planning session was really interesting, as our group had SOOO many ideas we couldn't decide what and how to do, although I thought Will's idea of bullying Tesco into advertising our website on their website was brilliant! I also loved the other groups' ideas of bringing Politics into the curriculum in a more structured way and creating a database of opportunities (Charlotte's and Ruth's excitement about this was so inspiring!). Was great to meet everyone, and awesome to find someone who's done the same degree as one that I want to do, and at the same uni!

Was slightly gutted I didn't get one of the Parliament Bags, but hey, the actual goodies-not-in-bags were cool!

After saying lovely goodbyes to everyone and agreeing on a plan to change the world I set off back to Newcastle. Had a meeting with a Battlefront Campaigns person on the way at Old Street, and got a train at 7pm. This was meant to get me back at 9.50pm, but guess what? I am very lucky with all my trains being delayed, so thanks to a broken down train before us we were stuck between Darlington and Newcastle for about an hour and a half, which meant I only got home at 00.00am! At least there was a woman that kept us entertained on the train with phrases like: 'They have the tube in Newcastle? I didn't know that!'. Of course we don't, we have the metro, like in France and all other fab places. Ah, good stuff!

To summarise: long journeys, cool people, brilliant ideas, amazing time, one long 19 hour day! Thanks to Big Society's Big Mouth! Read less

Tomorrow, 11 March 2013, I am taking a group of very excited young people down to London to meet the All Party Parliamentary Group for Children at the House of Lords. They will be presenting their findings and opinions on the question of "Are children and young people getting the opportunities they want?".

The group is called Think Tank and is part of the Children's Right Team (which is being axed due to recent cuts by the end of this month) based at Newcastle City Council.

The topics for us for tomorrow will be:
- opportunities already available to young people
- how these are distributed
- who is able to access them (the active, some disadvantaged young people)
- who isn't? (those in the middle, as well as refugees, asylum seekers and some other groups)
- how can we improve the situation with the view of recent cuts - alternative solutions.
- and more...

We would like people to know that this study is taking place and that maybe (to an extent) the government does want to listen to young people, even if they aren't prepared to act yet!

So our message is: SPEAK UP!! Read less