Name

Unit 5  UK Youth Parliament Class

Date

Start thinking
1 Answer the questions.
1 Who is the political leader of your country at the moment?

2 Which political party does he / she belong to?

3 How often are general elections held in your country?

Comprehension check
2 Watch the video. Choose the correct answers.
1 You have to be at least … years old to vote in an election in the UK.
a eighteen b sixteen c twenty
2 Young people who are in the UK Youth Parliament are known as …
a MPs. b MYPs. c UKYPs.
3 In the video, a local … congratulates the winners of the Oxfordshire Youth Parliament election.
a teacher b politician c businessman

3 Watch the video again. Answer the questions.

1 How often is a new government elected in the UK?
At least once every  .
2 Who is the leader of the UK government?
The  .
3 Around what percentage of people DID vote in the 2010 UK election?
per cent.
4 How many people are there in the UK Youth Parliament?
There are over members.
5 How did people vote in the Oxfordshire Youth Parliament election in February?
They voted online and by  .
6 How many new members were chosen in the election in Oxfordshire?
  new members.

4 Complete the summary. Write a word or a number in each gap.

campaigns candidates constituency government party policies politics
General elections are held regularly in the UK to choose a new 1  . In the elections, people vote for a
Member of Parliament for their 2  . The leader of the 3 that wins the election becomes
the country’s new leader. It is this person’s job to decide which 4 to follow and implement. But it
isn’t only adults that are involved in 5 in the UK. Young people can vote in the UK Youth Parliament
elections. The 6 at these elections are young people, too. They all have to work hard on their
7
 , if they want to be elected into the Youth Parliament.

5 Work in pairs. Answer the questions.

1 Why do you think some people choose not to vote, even when they can?
2 How do you think the government spends most of its money in your country?
3 What qualities do you think a person should have to become a politician?

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 Vocabulary
6 Rewrite the sentences. Replace the words in bold with one of the synonyms below.
opportunity compulsory contemporary influence issue role support take part
1 In my country, it is obligatory to go to school until you are fifteen years old.

2 My friend’s mother has an important position in the government.

3 In the next class, we are going to discuss the topic of child poverty.

4 How many parties are going to participate in the election?

5 My sister is eighteen next year, so she’ll have the chance to vote.

6 There is a new exhibition of modern art at our local gallery.

7 We always cheer for our school team when they play in tournaments.

8 Did the campaign affect your vote at the election?

7 Complete the sentences with the verbs below.

hold make publicize represent run stand
1 All the athletes were proud to their country at the Olympics.
2 Who is going to for election as mayor of the town?
3 When are they going to the next election?
4 She is going to a speech at the press conference tomorrow.
5 We hired an advertising agency to help us our new company name.
6 They need to find a manager to their new office in Hong Kong.

Extension
Work in groups. You are going to discuss this statement: ‘The voting age should be reduced to sixteen’.
One group will be against the statement and the other group will be in favour of the statement.
1 Choose one person in your group to write. In your group, think of as many arguments (for or against) as
possible and write them down.
2 Now choose the five best arguments. Prepare a short speech presenting your arguments. Give examples
where possible. Use the expressions in the box to help you.
3 Your teacher or chairperson will start the debate. One person in your group will give a short speech,
presenting the group’s arguments. He / she should talk for about three minutes.
4 When both groups have finished their speeches, you can respond to each other’s arguments.
5 At the end of the debate, the teacher or chairperson will hold a vote. Decide if you are in favour of or against
the statement, based on the arguments of each group. You don’t have to agree with the opinion of the group
that you were in.

Useful expressions: Talking about imaginary situations

If the voting age was sixteen, …
If we reduced the voting age, …
If teenagers did / didn’t …
Elections would / wouldn’t be …
Young people would / wouldn’t be …
Voters could …

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 Unit 5  DVD teacher’s notes

Video summary
The video is about the UK Youth Parliament. It focuses on a meeting of the Oxfordshire Youth Parliament and the
elections for new Members of the Youth Parliament (MYPs). This video links to page 62 of the Student’s Book.

Background culture notes

The UK Youth Parliament is a youth organization in the UK, consisting of democratically elected members aged
between eleven and eighteen. Its aim is to represent the views of young people in their area to the government.
The Youth Parliament was formed in the year 2000 and it now consists of around 600 members who are chosen
at annual elections. Over 500,000 young people vote at the elections each year and they are held in about
90% of all the constituencies in the UK. Members meet regularly to hold debates and plan campaigns. The
Youth Parliament is supported by all three main political parties in the UK (Conservative, Labour and Liberal
Democrats). The organization is currently managed by the British Youth Council.

Start thinking
1 Read the questions with the class and elicit answers from individual students. Encourage students
to give a personal response and use their suggestions to start a class discussion.
Answer key
Students’ own answers.

Comprehension check
2 Answer key
1  a  2 b  3 b

3 Answer key
1 five years  2  Prime Minister  3 sixty-five  4  six hundred  5 text  6 three

4 Answer key
1 government  2 constituency  3 party  4 policies  5 politics  6 candidates  7 campaigns

5 Students’ own answers.

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 Vocabulary
6 Answer key
1 compulsory  2 role  3 issue  4  take part  5 opportunity  6 contemporary  7 support  8 influence

7 Answer key
1 represent  2 stand  3 hold  4 make  5 publicize  6 run

Extension
Stage 1: Preparation before the class
• Write on the board: The voting age should be reduced to sixteen.
• Tell students they are going to have a debate to discuss the statement. Explain that half of them will be in favour
of the statement and half of them will be against it.
Stage 2: Procedure in the class
• Divide students into groups of about eight. Ask them to move their desks together, if possible.
• Divide each group into Group A and Group B. Tell students that Group A will be in favour of the statement and
Group B will be against it.
• Ask students in their A or B groups to brainstorm arguments to support their opinion. Name one person in each
group as the secretary to make a note of their ideas.
• Ask students to choose their five best arguments. Explain that they need to expand their arguments by thinking
of examples to illustrate the points.
• They should then write their speech. Tell them to use the useful expressions in the box to help them.
• Tell each group to choose one person to speak for their group. Then tell each Group A to join each Group B.
• Choose one student to act as the chairperson in each AB group. Explain that the chairperson should start the
debate by introducing the statement and then ask the speaker from Group A to speak first.
• After three minutes, the chairperson should thank the first speaker and ask the speaker from Group B to give
their speech.
• After three minutes, the chairperson should thank the second speaker and ask the students in Group B to ask
Group A some questions about their speech.
• After three minutes, the chairperson should invite the students in Group A to ask Group B some questions about
their speech.
• After three minutes, the chairperson should hold a vote. Ask the students to hold up their hands if they are in
favour of the statement and count the number. Then ask the students to hold up their hands if they are against
the statement and count the number.
• Ask the chairperson of each group for the result of the vote in their group.
Extra ideas
You could ask students to research voting ages in different countries. This may give them some useful ideas to use
in the debate.

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 Unit 5 DVD scripts  UK Youth Parliament
In the United Kingdom, a government is elected at least once every five years. In a general election, citizens vote for a
Member of Parliament for their local area. Members of Parliament are known as MPs and the area an MP represents is
called a constituency. The political party with the most elected MPs usually forms the government. MPs meet inside
the Houses of Parliament in London. The Prime Minister is the leader of the government. He must decide on the
policies the government will follow and how they will be implemented.
UK citizens over the age of eighteen have the right to vote. But voting is optional, not compulsory, so people don’t
have to vote if they don’t want to. In fact, in the 2010 general election, around 35% of people chose not to vote. People
won’t vote unless there’s an MP they support.
But some young people are very interested in politics and want to take part. They think it’s unfair that if a young person
is earning at the age of sixteen, they have to pay taxes, but they still can’t vote if they want to. However, if young
people want to become politically active before they’re eighteen, they should become involved with the UK Youth
Parliament.
This group of teenagers are having a discussion at a meeting of the Oxfordshire Youth Parliament. The teenagers are
from schools in the local area. They believe that young people ought to have a voice in politics and meetings like this
give these young people a forum where they can discuss the issues that matter to them most.
At the moment, they’re looking at how the government spends its money. Next, they have the chance to decide what
they would do if they were politicians. They have to choose what they would spend the money on if they ran the
country. Following this, they’ll have the opportunity to discuss their ideas with local politicians. Three of the students
in the room this evening have an even bigger role in national youth politics because they’re also members of the UK
Youth Parliament.
The UKYP has over 600 elected members around the country. Elected members are known as MYPs and are between
eleven and eighteen years old. The MYPs represent the views of young people in their local area, at regional and
national meetings of the UK Youth Parliament. Elections for the Oxfordshire MYPs were held in February.
Young people could vote by text, and online, for the person who they wanted to represent them. When all the votes
were counted, the candidates attended a meeting in Oxford to hear the results.
All seventeen candidates had worked hard on their campaigns. They had different policies and different ideas about
which issues were the most important. They gave speeches in their schools, and put up posters. Some of them used
the internet to publicize their campaign.
“My name’s Diko Blackings, and for my campaign, what I did is I spoke to people in my school, spoke to people in other schools.
I did most of this over Facebook, so I made it modern and contemporary to get people involved in politics – trying to keep it
relevant.”
If they are elected, these teenagers will become the voice for people in their area for the next year and have a chance
to make a real difference. Some young people think that politicians won’t listen to their opinions, because they can’t
vote in general elections. But becoming an MYP can give them the opportunity to influence government policies on
issues that are important to them, like education, public transport and child poverty. Some people believe that if the
UK lowered the voting age to sixteen, more young people would vote in the future.
Finally, it was time to announce the three new MYPs. After the ceremony, the new MYPs were congratulated by a local
MP, John Howell.
“The UK Youth Parliament is a brilliant way of getting them really involved: they have to stand for election, they have to make
speeches, they have to represent people. Because they are doing fantastic things, right across this county.”
The MYPs are excited about their new opportunities. Maybe if they’re good at their job, they’ll become MPs when
they’re older and, who knows, maybe one of these charismatic young politicians is a future prime minister.

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