Bite the Ballot does incredibly important work in helping young people to ensure their voices are heard and to use the power of the vote – I am proud to be a patron and support them in their goals!

I believe that politics can make a difference to daily life. It is not just something which happens in Parliament or on election days. It is about whether we have a good school, how easy it will be for us to find a job, how long we will have to wait for hospital treatment,  and whether we feel safe when we walk down the street.

Voting matters. That’s why Bite the Ballot matters. I want to see more young people using their right to vote in the next election. It’s thanks to brilliant campaigns like yours that more young people will understand that their vote and their voice makes a difference.

Bite the Ballot is a fantastic campaign! Even though we might not always agree, we have to have the debate and that debate is better, richer with you in it than with you standing on the sidelines.  Don’t be left out, you have more power than you realize. You just need to decide to use it!

Bite The Ballot is a really cool idea! I love the fact that it has no party allegiance, It’s only aim is to inspire young people to get involved in their future and vote, have their voices heard. I have been guilty in the past of thinking that my small little vote wouldn’t mean anything but all those single votes can collectively change our future. Why Vote? Because we can!

Encouraging schools and young people to be politically active is a very cool, bold, and beneficial move – ‘Bite The Ballot’ are doing just that! Young people exploring politics of today and the future together, coming face to face with the decision makers of this country, having their questions answered by politicians that are listening to them. These politicians recognise that the young are their future voters and are wise to invest in their political education.

It is essential that the next generation of voters understand not only the mechanics of voting but the hugely important reasons that lay behind it.  Work done at the Wilmington Academy by the Bite the Ballot organisers is terrifically engaging and a real tribute to the young people who took part.

The ‘Bite the Ballot’ campaign focuses on one main idea, which is to give voice to young people. At the last General election 60% of them failed to vote. Bite The Ballot was created by young people for young people in an attempt to unite them using Politics. To make them believe in the power of their voice and to know that one vote can count!

The latest Bite the Ballot event at the commons showed the hunger and passion for political discussion, political education and for sheer politics. It is often said that young people are not interested in Politics, anybody joining us last week would have seen how untrue this is. The job of parents, teachers, political leaders and the media is to offer a maximum number of opportunities for political education as urgently as possible.

The debate was fresh, vibrant, combative and very reassuring. The students loved it. What really mattered was that a hundred or so young people saw and heard from half a dozen or so politicians who neither lectured them nor treated them with condescension nor intellectual contempt. And that included the Deputy Prime Minister.

It wasn’t the issues of electoral reform and student finance that really mattered tonight. It was a willingness to talk, listen and talk again – student to politician to student. I travel home once again refreshed by “Bite the Ballot” and some of my favourite people in Parliament.