2010-05-03T11:27:00.001-07:00

How ironic it was that my introduction to this campaign about the disengagement of the British youth from politics came through the medium of Facebook, which has become so synonymous with the stereotypical bored, unproductive and apathetic teenagers of Britain. My friend Xandria, who volunteers for the Ideas Foundation, had appealed for anyone born on May 7^th 1992 to make them self known to her, and I happened to be one of the 1766 people in the UK born on exactly that date. At that stage, I was still unaware of what would be involved, but in a whirlwind few days starting on Friday, less than a week before the General Election on May 6^th, I had been introduced to Robin and his team at Engine, who proceeded to explain to me their interest in getting young Brits to use their right to vote by drawing attention to the frustration of those who would just be missing out (in my case by 13 hours). After having my photo taken (which would later be used for the billboards put up around London) at the HQ of Engine at Great Portland Street, I was whisked off to the site of one of these billboards at Vauxhall Cross, where I was informally interviewed and further photographed by Robin and his team of volunteers, but not before Robin had nearly managed to encourage a packed tube carriage at rush hour to sing a premature ‘Happy Birthday’ to me and Isobel. It’s bizarre to see my photo up around London on such enormous billboards (for one, I never realised I had so many freckles), and as a result I was woken by a text from an undoubtedly ‘merry’ friend asking if he was going mad by seeing a blown-up portrait of me at 2am at Camden Lock. But it’s really been an exciting experience to suddenly have this opportunity, and I’d thoroughly encourage anyone else born on May 7^th 1992 to join this website, get involved in the discussions, and thereby hopefully encourage those who do have a vote on 6^th May to use it. My only concern is what graffiti’s being plastered on those billboards right now…

Daniel

2010-05-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

I’m not quite sure how this happened, but I’m in the middle of Vauxhall roundabout, getting gawped at by passing motorists as I explain my political views to a camera, in front of a massive poster titled May 7^th 1992 – the date of my 18th birthday. The day after the 2010 general election - the most important election in Britain for decades, and possibly the most important one in my lifetime. Of course, I’d been angry about missing it (not helped by the Lib Dem canvasser laughing in my face when I told him - not that I was voting for him anyway), but I hadn’t realised there was anything I could do about it, or any way to make my views heard. Then a friend told me that a group called Volunteers for 2010 was looking for people who were born on May 7^th 1992 for an election campaign. Arriving extremely late and dishevelled to a meeting after school, I found one other May 7^th-er, a team of creative geniuses and a man dressed head to toe in purple. It seemed I had entered the creative world of advertising.

The idea, it turned out, was simple – to get people my age to vote. Shockingly, I discovered that there is only a 38% turn out rate of first time voters in the elections, meaning that more young people vote for the X factor winner than vote for the future leader of Britain. Aside from bringing in Simon Cowell to judge the Prime Ministerial debates, there had to be something we could do. We decided to be part of a campaign to make young people appreciate their right to vote, instead of wasting it. After all, that’s the whole point of democracy.

So that, basically, is the reason I am standing out in the freezing cold, being honked at by passing drivers, and quite possibly making a fool of myself on camera. To get you to use your vote.

May 7th 1992