I have personally pursued Dominic Raab across the breadth of Northern Ireland. I have reached out to Sammy Wilson and received a point blank refusal for discussion, my friend Aron has attempted to see Paul Maskey, and Arlene Foster’s email account might as well be a brick wall.
MPs have simply not been listening to me, or to people my age, across the country. This is not a tenable status quo.
I have been ignored and fobbed off by many of those who claim represent Northern Ireland. My thanks do go out to the MPs who have taken the time to meet with me. It is telling that the vast majority of these Parliamentarians who are listening to the youth of this country back a People’s Vote.
That’s why we’re taking the conversation to the many Parliamentarians who have been harder to reach.
Along with 150 young people from every corner of the UK, I will be travelling to Parliament to lobby my MP. To make the point that we matter. Our voices matter. No matter how hard those in power, from my home all the way to Westminster, have tried to cut young people out of the conversation about Brexit.
In Northern Ireland, we suffer from a democratic deficit which deprives my generation of local representation and good governance. 677 days since the collapse of our assembly in Stormont, people on both sides of the sectarian divide have become resigned to the absence of any elected Northern Irish voice in our affairs.
Compounding the problem, our Westminster representation is a disgrace. The DUP only garnered 36% of the vote in 2017, but holds almost all the cards in the House of Commons.
Stormont are masters of parliamentary malfeasance - but Westminster seems little better at this point. The former may not have sat for almost two years, but my voice feels just as unheard in Westminster. I have written, called, emailed, and physically chased MPs from across Northern Ireland. To no avail.
Across the United Kingdom, young people are shouting to be heard. Today we’re taking the conversation to them. 150 young people will mass in central lobby. While they wait (and it may be a while), they will call their MP’s office. They will write to their MP. They will show them that young people are more than willing to participate in democracy, both traditional and digital.
The ball is in their court. Young people are waiting for something, someone to vote for. Turnout was higher in the EU referendum among 18-24s than it was in the 2017 election when both parties backed Brexit.
Polling shows that every Labour constituency backs a People’s Vote. Every marginal Conservative seat does the same. It is not just in the interest of democracy that MPs should listen to their young constituents. They stand much to gain themselves. Young people will punish politicians who don’t listen to them, who sell out their futures, at the ballot box.
So that’s why I have come all these miles to Westminster from my home in Newry, a border town in Northern Ireland. Here, the import of Brexit hangs over our daily lives like a storm cloud. Young people where I come from are not taking this lightly - hundreds and hundreds of Northern Irish students walked out of their classes last week in support of a referendum on the final deal. We have been watching and waiting for the deal to take shape. Now that it has, we could not be more disappointed.
This deal is not good enough for our futures. It is not good enough for young people in Northern Ireland and across the UK who stand to lose so much - not just jobs, not just economic opportunity here in the UK, but the chance to live, work, and love on the continent.
It spells out the loss of the stable, prosperous and collaborative future so many of us had looked forward to in Northern Ireland and the UK’s relationship with Europe. Ultimately, I stepped on the plane this morning because it is all too plainly written across the 585 pages of legalese in this deal that my generation was ignored in its negotiation.
I will be joined in the Commons lobby today by more than 150 of my peers from across the UK. My hope is that Parliamentarians will accept our solemn and timely request to be heard.
The stakes for me, my generation, and my community could not be higher. If our MPs won’t answer our emails, they had better answer when we come knocking at the halls of power.
Doire Finn is co-president of Our Future, Our Choice NI (OFOC NI), a youth movement in Northern Ireland campaigning for a People’s Vote.