The young guns of government

Sir Menzies Campbell stepped down as leader of the Liberal Democrat Party because, at the age of 66, his image was not considered young enough to engage with the electorate.

Meanwhile A-level student Emily Benn, 18, has been chosen as Labour's candidate for the parliamentary seat of East Worthing and Shoreham.

If she succeeds in overturning Tory Tim Loughton's 8,000-vote majority, she would become the fifth generation of Benns to be elected to Parliament.

Her uncle is Environment Secretary Hilary Benn and her grandfather is veteran leftwinger Tony Benn.

Political parties at both national and local level are now increasingly looking towards younger, hipper people to represent them.

One of these is 20-year-old Jonathan Ash-Edwards.

Like most people his age, Jonathan enjoys a drink in his local pub and plays sport in his spare time.

But since May, these popular pastimes have had to take a back seat. He now spends much of his time sitting in meetings with people three times his age, debating planning issues and reading reams of documents.

Such is the life of one of the youngest councillors in the county.

Coun Ash-Edwards, who is studying for an Open University degree in business management, made the choice to stand as a candidate for Mid Sussex District Council a year after volunteering with the Conservative Party.

He said: "To be spending a lot of evenings a week at meetings, sometimes not about the most riveting subjects, is not the most obvious choice for someone my age.

"But between 20 and 30 per cent of the population in Mid Sussex are under the age of 30 and they previously didn't have anyone of that age group representing them on the council.

"I personally believe there's a link between younger people not voting and the lack of younger candidates."

Coun Ash-Edwards, who lives in Haywards Heath, is not put off by the suggestion that life experience is more important than youth.

He said: "It's an inevitable concern but at the end of the day politics at any level benefits from having people with a wide range of experiences.

"During the election campaign people were saying on their doorsteps it would be nice to have someone younger on the council to make it more representative. I think that is important."

He is not alone in his efforts to provide younger representatives in grass roots politics.

May's local elections marked a turning point for young candidates staking their claim in the political arena.

The wave of young candidates voted on to Brighton and Hove City Council was so strong it brought down the average age from 57 to nearer 45.

It seems young people are interested in how the country is run and they will not be told politics is exclusively for the retired.

Before Coun Ash-Edwards was voted in, there was no one under 40 on Mid Sussex District Council.

He studied politics at A-level and described it as a "natural step" to pursue a career in local government. He was so passionate he even roped his father, Christopher, into becoming a town councillor.

Coun Ash-Edwards Jnr is ambitious and said he would not turn down the chance to be an MP if it were offered.

Daniel Shing, 24, is a Wealden district councillor, and said he became involved in politics to make a difference.

The Independent Democrat for Willingdon has been politically active for the past ten years, ferrying messages to and from his father Stephen, a sitting Wealden councillor. Daniel said: "I would say age didn't really affect my getting elected. I think when people vote they want to know you can do the job and that you are committed.

"I got involved because I wanted to help people and make a difference."

Coun Shing, who lives in Willingdon and also serves on Willingdon Parish Council, has been driven to succeed in politics for the past three years. He made a bid for a seat on East Sussex County Council when he was just 21. Although unsuccessful, he was not deterred and was voted on to Wealden District Council in May.

Five months on he is still enjoying the role and does not resent the fact it eats into his social life.

He said: "I've cut back on socialising. I've never really been a party animal so I have enough time at weekends to do a lot of the council work."

Time management and a sympathetic employer are clearly crucial for a young person to succeed in politics. Unlike some of their peers, who may be retired, they must juggle work and family commitments along with the demands of their ward.

Coun Shing, who has a degree in business management and computing from Kingston University, Surrey, holds down a full-time job as a legal administrator for East Sussex County Council while working evenings at his father's takeaway shop in Willingdon.

Tory Daniel Kavanagh was 21 when he became the youngest member of Crawley Borough Council in May.

Now 22, he says youth has its advantages.

He said: "I think new opinions and new ideas.

Changing the way it's always been done is very important because sometimes that is not always the most effective way of running things.

"Young eyes can view things afresh. It also means we can keep in touch with the younger voters and get people our age attracted to politics.

"It gives residents great appreciation seeing someone so young in politics. It gives them the motivation to get involved themselves."

He has three jobs - his council work, running his own online lingerie business and working for a car rental company at Gatwick.

He said: "It's stressful but you have to make time."

Brighton and Hove city councillor Bill Randall said Coun Shing and Coun Kavanagh were rare because not all councillors were able to balance their roles with work so successfully.

He said most young people were precluded from becoming councillors because so many meetings clashed with work or family commitments.

He said: "We've often said we need to look at how the council is organised to make it easier for younger people to come in.

"Most of the meetings take place during the day.

A lot of private sector employers are not very flexible about giving them time off for their work.

It makes it difficult to balance all that if you've got a family."

With nine out of 11 members under 50, the city council's Green Party is the youngest in the county.

Coun Randall said young candidates were key to the party's success because they reflected their members, most of whom were under 40.

He was delighted when 22-year-old Vicky Wakefield-Jarrett won a seat in his Hanover and Elm Grove ward in May.

Coun Wakefield-Jarrett certainly seems in touch with the youthful electorate. She is a key link for the party with student unions at both the University of Sussex and Brighton on environmental issues.

Coun Randall said: "There are a lot of grey heads on the city council. There's nothing wrong with that but you need a balance across the board.

"It's important to have young people on the council.

"Services for young people in the city are so badly neglected we need them to represent the younger population on the council to make a case for them.

"It makes more difference if people who do it were teenagers not long ago themselves.

"I remember when I was 20, anybody over the age of 35 seemed absolutely ancient to me."

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