Politics in Action: Challenging Big Names

On Monday 2nd December, our Politics students were brimming with questions as they headed to the annual Politics Conference at Westminster Hall, London. Head of Politics, Richard Duckett described the experience as “an excellent day out, filled with ‘big name’ politicians, with opportunities for students to ask them questions after their talk”.   

The lineup for 2024 included Jess Phillips, Nigel Farage, Michael Gove, Richard Tice and Jacob Rees-Mogg, facing a tough crowd of around 2,000 students from across the country.  

The talks provided varied political opinions with representives from different political parties. Many of the talks placed an emphasis on the importance of the youth involving themselves in politics, being the next generation to spark a change. Not only did the speakers talk about recent bills and political events but also covered environmental and climate change topics such as what kind of sustainable and renewable energy sources the government should fund. Each party also gave their opinions on where the government should focus time and effort and where the government money and funding should be distributed and invested too. 

The politicians enjoyed plenty of support from the audience, with cheers and claps during their talks; however, controversy arose at points where students challenged politicians their view channelling their freedom of speech to ask questions.  

Kimia (Upper Sixth) described the atmosphere of the day as “very supportive, as after many comments, questions and in overall conversation, students from different schools congratulated each other, debated on the questions raised and even had general conversations over the A Level Politics curriculum”.  

Louis (Lower Sixth) reflected: “It was an amazing experience getting to speak to some really famous MP’s. Hearing them speak was an honour and I really enjoyed every minute of it”. Margot (Lower Sixth) agreed: “I thought it was really interesting to hear different opinions from the politicians but also from the audience as well, who were very vocal in their opinions and criticisms”.