L!STEN meets Labour

Our L!STEN group have had a productive summer so far, not only have they been busy preparing for the Wellbeing Event at the end of the holidays, but they've had a visit with their local Labour MP! Artemis has written a blog to fill us all in:

Today, some members of the L!sten group had the pleasure of meeting with British politician and Labour MP, Mr. Navendu Mishra. The hour was spent at Stopford house where we were treated with respect and hospitality. We were given a comfortable space to have a productive and informative discussion with Mr. Mishra.

Our group's key discussion points were surrounded around a range topics, from Mr. Navendu's personal experience in politics all the way to young people's chances at finding work experience placements- entering the formal working environment for the first time. The centre core of many of our questions revolved around the lives of young people in Stockport, our experiences in the education system and our opinions on the most recent changes to our local community. Additionally, topics also included the likes of bullying and hate crime in schools as well as briefly mentioning the challenges of being a student with a language barrier in schools. 

From a personal viewpoint, I found the session very helpful and informative. I thought it was an appropriate dip into the world of politics, and we got a good grasp of some of the things Mr. Mishra has done as the Stockport MP.  Furthermore, what stood out to me and something I truly appreciated was how we were treated formally with respect, despite our age and each person's voice in the room held great importance regardless of their opinions or background. In addition, Mr. Mishra was incredibly welcoming and open to discussing all aspects of the topics raised fairly. 

Towards the end of the session the group discussed whether visiting Parliament would be a good idea for later in the year and this stood out to a lot of us as a great opportunity for us to further immerse ourselves in society and to experience the core examples of politics. Personally, I think this would be an outstanding opportunity for the L!sten group and be unanimously appreciated by everyone one of us. 

I would finally like to thank Beth and Mr. Mishra on behalf of everyone that was there today, this was a great experience and although brief, we managed to tackle some of the most pressing topics for young people. overall a very productive session!

Kind regards,

Artemis Riazinejad