Friday 09-05-2014 - 14:07

 Radio MDX DJs Welshy and The Posh recently interviewed the Labour candidate for Finchley and Golders Green, Sarah Sackman. In her own words: she 'grew up locally in East Finchley; I now work as a barrister in environmental law and my real passion is community campaigning. Some listeners may have heard of the work I did with local residents to save Frien Barnet library, which is just down to road from Middlesex University.' 

 

 

She joined DJs Joe and Luke for a full hour-long show, taking time to answer questons about why young people are turned off by politics, why they should vote, who her favourite band is, and much more. You can listen to the complete podcast here; below are a few highlights.

 

Moving from law to politics - is that quite Tony Blairesque?

I think it’s fair to say it’s not an uncommon route. I did History as an undergrad and was wondering what I should do next. I decided to do law because I was interested in public life and in trying to make a difference, and I saw law as a way of doing that.

 

The longer that I practised law - it’s been an amazing experience and I really enjoy my work - it made me realise that law and politics have got to go hand in hand if you want to make a difference.

 

If you could identify yourself with a politician, a hero, who would you name?

Some of you may have heard of one of our Labour MPs down in Walthamstow, Stella Creasy. She’s a young Labour woman MP and she has really made - in a very short time, in political life - a massive massive impact to the people in Walthamstow but also nationally. 

 

The way she’s gone about doing that is by showing herself to be a local community champion. She listened to people in Walthamstow and asked them, what are the main challenges facing you? She found that time and time again that debt and the scourge of payday lending was a problem in her area. 

 

She used her passion, her intelligence, her commitment, to take a very local issue and show that there is a much bigger problem in the country and actually got the Chancellor to change the law.

 

I think that’s what politics is all about. It’s about seeing something you don’t like, taking a stand, challenging it, and really making a difference that way.

 

 

Tony Benn recently died - how did you feel about that?

I think that Tony Benn was one of the most passionate, articulate and inspiring voices - not just for people of the left but for people across Britain.

 

One of the most powerful things he said was “when you meet someone in a position of political power, the first thing you should ask them is how did you get that power, and how can I get rid of you?”

 

I think that just sums Tony Benn up: he believed int he power of the political democratic process. That question is something that every person in this country should ask when they encounter power.

 

With all the deaths recently - Bob Crow, Tony Benn - people have been saying that the left is dead. How do you feel about young people on the left?

I don’t think the left is dead at all - I think actually that what you’re seeing is people like Stella Creasy within the Labour party, and beyond mainstream politics in the media, young people getting involving in organisations like Amnesty and Oxfam, getting involved in politics in all sorts of ways.

 

Politics is reinventing itself - it has to move with the times, as does the left as part of that. The rise of social media, the rise of 38-degrees style clicktivism.

 

When people say ‘the left is dead,’ and in particular ‘young people now aren’t interested in politics’ that just doesn’t ring true for me at all because I see that our movement - the Labour movement and the left - is actually bristling with energy, ideas, and fantastic people - many of them pretty young as well.

 

Ed Miliband has confirmed that he’s listened [to the 38 degrees anti-gagging law campaign] if Labour gets to power they will wipe the gagging law out of the statute books...

It’s fitting in a way that that’s come through something like 38 degrees, which has this ability to mobilise lots and lots of voices through online petitions on issues like the gagging law.

 

The reason that government passed that law is to constrain the freedom of expression of charities, of campaign organisations, of voluntary groups - basically to restrict their ability to participate in public debate. 

 

So I think it’s really right that Ed Miliband has listened to what people have to say and taken a very clear stance that Labour will repeal that from the statute and do everything we can to enhance transparency and openness in public life.

 

 

Why should young people vote? Quite a lot of them see that their vote’s not going to make a difference or that the system itself is just wrong. 

What that question throws up is probably the biggest challenge that people in my position are facing at the next election - this sense that ‘all of you guys are the same, and what difference will it make if I vote?’ 

 

I think we have to take that challenge as the most serious challenge of all. Ultimately, the message that I want to get out today, is: whatever you do, vote.

 

I’m not here to say vote for me, or vote for the others. Just vote.

 

Why do I say this? If you don’t vote, people will make decisions in your name. It’s as simple as that. If you look at the Chancellor’s budget, there was almost nothing in that for younger people - for students, for people just graduating from school or uni in terms of jobs. 

 

All of the headlines were about how this is geared towards pensioners and elderly people. There’s nothing wrong, of course, in taking in interest in that group, but it’s basic electoral maths that the Chancellor is doing. He knows that 75% of people over 65 vote, and he knows that less than 45% of people between 18 and 25 vote. 

 

So if you don’t vote that then gets reflected in the public debate. People make decisions in your name that affect you, without listening to what you say because they can get away with it. That’s probably the number 1 reason why you should vote.

 

And we’ve got to give young people a reason to vote. We’ve got to have an offer that makes sense to people in opposition and that makes people want to go out and vote. And this time, I think we really do - on tuition fees, on the jobs guarantee - these sorts of policies will make a difference dot young people if Labour get into government. 

 

But it’s a two-way street. Make sure you vote, because if you don’t vote, you can’t complain. At the same time, I’m going to take it upon myself to give you guys a reason to vote.

----------------

For the entire wide-ranging hour-long interview, covering the three key differences between the Conservative and Labour offers for young people, how much of a Londoner Sackman is and her love of rock band the White Stripes (among other things), listen to the full recording here!