Well it's been a gruelling couple of weeks for the councillors (and those of us working behind the scenes too! No, no, it's fine, we don't want sympathy, we do it for the love of democracy. I seem to remember). But hopefully an interesting, entertaining and inspiring one for the councillors and the young people taking part.
We're all on tenterhooks now to find out who'll win. The councillors even more so. My moderators have been staying after their shifts to wait for Shane to announce the results, young people (and councillors) have been popping into evening live chats to ask us for a heads up. And some of the quotes from councillors show they really care about the event.:-
“my wife says im getting to involved and taking it too seriously!! i say that the young people are our future if we ignore them there is no future. im absolutely loving it!! vote BACKHOUSE!!”
Students keep asking councillors what they'll do if they win, one reply was, “the politically correct answer is to say that taking part is the main thing but since im not politically correct id be over the moon and would celebrate with a coulpe of pints and a chip cob in the redgate on westfield lane.” We're sorry Cllr Eddie Smith, you were a worthy contestant, and we hope you still enjoyed your pint and chip cob, you've certainly earned it!
Councillors have even been re-arranging their lives around the event. And we’re delighted to hear how far our fame has spread.:-
“I have managed to rearrange my medical appointment (I told the receptionist I was in IAC and she was most impressed!) So I can do the chat as planned tomorrow morning. Panic Over! Problem sorted.”
Of course, that fame has been helped by the great press coverage we’ve got. We’ve been delighted this year by how the press have picked up on the event. We’ve been on BBCi Wales, BBCi Cumbria, local press and even mentioned on Channel 4 news! I hope this helps the message get out about how much great engagement you can get from an essentially pretty simple tool.
We’ve had questions on everything from ID cards and the Iraq war to the councillors’ pets and if they fall out with their fellow councillors or get on with them. I love the latter sort of question because it shows that young people are really using the event to get inside what it’s like to be a councillor.
Hopefully this humanises local democracy – it becomes something they can see themselves getting involved in if they want, not something reserved for particular sorts of people. My best friend works as a parliamentary liaison officer for a large charity, when I told her about this she said, “You know, that’s what I really want to know about MPs – how much are they mates really, what the relationships are like – but you never feel you can ask so you have to make small talk about pensions policy instead”. Maybe we need IAC for adults too?
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