Yahoo News From foreign policy to accessibility: the General Election view from Durham
With just two weeks to go until the General Election on July 4, ChronicleLive ventured out to Durham city centre to find out what was motivating people to vote, or stay at home, come polling day. We are speaking to voters all over the North East in the run-up to July 4.
Many students were filling up their parents’ cars to head home at the end of the University year. Some were posing with their dissertations outside Durham Cathedral.
Those who stopped to share their views thought that the lack of accessibility for younger voters was a problem. Lily, 19, said: “Under 25s are not encouraged to vote very much and I think it’s a shame.”
Eloise, 21, added: “If I’m on TikTok, I’ll see videos from particularly Labour and Lib Dem, trying to make memes and whatever, but they are not actually telling me what their policy is. It is not informing me."
Thomas Workman, 23, explained that being a local business owner had “broadened my horizons of… the business side of things in politics”. The Maple Patisserie owner of two years went on to say that because of circumstances, such as the pandemic, “we got in there with smaller investment than we would have. Energy [costs], with the price of inflation, it’s been a struggle, but at least we’re doing it.”
On Claypath, Fran, 21, raised “the parties’ policies on Gaza and what’s going on in Palestine”, setting out his view that “I don’t think any party has really said anything that I necessarily agree with, at least, the two main ones”.
Other people were also concerned about foreign policy, but these concerns went beyond the Middle East. Alan Charlton, 71, discussed “the threat from Russia. We could well have a real problem in the next few years after Ukraine, which is likely to lose the war… I don’t think people are really alive to this threat.”
Stopping to talk on Saddler Street, Mr Charlton went on to say: "The election is particularly important in Scotland; Scottish Independence would be the end of NATO. They say they would join because they would get rid of the nuclear bases there. If those weren’t there, the Americans would not be interested any more.”
There was near complete consensus among everyone who voiced their opinion that they had not felt any benefits of Brexit. This was the opinion even of those who had favoured the Brexit arguments in 2016.
An exception was Mr. Charlton who noted the “pluses and minuses” of Brexit. He raised what he saw as a positive: “No one had any idea who their European Member of Parliament was, and it is good to be out of that.”
