2017: The year voting became cool again2 min read

At around 9pm on the 7th of June, the eve of the general election, I put the phone down feeling nervously optimistic after a conversation with my 19-year-old cousin. He insisted all his friends in his home city of Coventry were voting, and even those without much political interest seemed to sense the gravitas of this election. In a state of mild panic, with the prospect of a Tory landslide and the decimation of the Labour party looking likely, I only wanted to believe him.
Phoning friends and family around the country, tweeting incessantly and penning melodramatic Facebook statuses, I wanted to make sure every young person I could contact was going to turn out and cast their vote. I’ve never needed any incentive to head to the ballot box, but I know, for good reason, that many young people need more encouragement.
For the last 25 years, youth turnout has been at a consistent low. In 1997 turnout dropped by ten percentage points to 56%, the following election falling to 41% and then to 38% in 2005. This dip has been broadly consistent, spiking significantly only in the election this year.
Research and casual conversation point to the same set of problems. 25 years of consensus politics moulded a perception of the political as uniform, stuffy and boring. In part, this was unappealing to a left leaning youth who felt there was little choice between left and right. But crucially, the result was an apathy towards the political system, a feeling that there was no connection between how we engage politically, and how we find our way in life. In short, caring about politics wasn’t cool.
So, to an extent Jeremy Corbyn can take credit for the 2017 surge to a 72% youth turnout, because he provided young left-wing people with an exciting left wing alternative to austerity, and a social movement to get on board with. But this election was about more than that. It was about decades of being ignored by mainstream political discourse, and finally realising that ignoring the ballot box was only making the situation worse. Since the 2008 recession, the programme of austerity pursued by the government has consistently disadvantaged young people.
Knowing their voter bases were largely amongst the over 35s, there was little cost to the Tories cutting youth public services. In 2011, the Coalition government tripled tuition fees for students in higher education. In August 2015, George Osborne’s budget scrapped maintenance grants for the poorest students, and axed housing benefits for the 18-21s.
These changes don’t just affect the very poorest, though they certainly hit them hardest. They make a distinct mark on the lives of middle class youth too, struggling to find a job despite their degree qualifications, or to save the money for the first two months of rent. Finally, the Brexit referendum robbed a largely pro-European youth of privileges we never expected to lose.
The Tories’ lost majority might have been a surprise, but the young consciousness responsible is no coincidence.