Voting for candidates vying in the election for this year’s Hounslow Youth Parliament helped us gain an insight into democracy and its role in modern Britain. This taught us the importance of engaging with the candidates to understand how they would represent our interests in this borough and their key priorities. Young people can and should make a difference in the community and encourages others to do so too. Watching the candidates talk about their manifestos was interesting, given that youth voices can be crucial expressions of the community needs. On the day of voting, we had to tick the boxes of two candidates who we thought were most persuading. All the candidates were definitely positive and propitious; it will be exciting to find out who will win and what they will do to contribute to the development of Hounslow and represent the interests of young people in this borough to improve our community.   

Kavya Ramachandran Sabarinthan [12G]