Katie Hunter | Depute Editor-In-Chief
Faith Sindick | Reporter
St Andrew’s and St Bride’s are extremely fortunate to educate two bright and inspiring young people, Faith Sindick and Chloe Carmichael, who were elected as the constituents to represent East Kilbride in the Scottish Youth Parliament. I was lucky enough to catch Faith between her regular meetings to get her say on the recent SYP conference which took place in the Parliament in Edinburgh.
Over the course of the two day event, the young people were given the opportunity to have their say in a number of parliamentary motions which allowed them to consider their treatment in society and how this can be enhanced in the future.
Faith, as a member of the justice committee, was first met by MP’s and MSP’s, to whom she asked questions regarding tackling justice in her own constituency of East Kilbride. They discussed the advantages and disadvantages of searching the public when out on the streets and mosquito devices in public places like train stations. It was discovered that Hamilton Train Station had earlier this year put in place a mosquito device which is responsible for letting out a loud and discomforting noise which can only be heard by under 25’s. It was an attempt to prevent the congregation of ‘anti-social’ young people which undoubtedly caused some uproar between the young MP’s. The group also delved into the issue of relationships with the police and how these can ultimately lead to greater levels of crime in the long term.
Following their thought-provoking discussions, the MSYP’s were invited to join a debate in the wondrous debating chamber of the Parliament where they were asked to pass motions which met the desires of their constituencies. Prior to any decision making, however, Bruce Adamson-a lawyer with over 20 years of experience and the Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland- gave our young people an insight into their rights and how these can ultimately be used to improve childhood and the period into their early adulthood.
In discussion, Faith mentioned a few of the most memorable bills which were discussed by the democratic bunch. Firstly, they argued for the condemnation of unpaid trial shifts in the workplace, arguing that they are wrong and exploitative with regards to younger workers. This motion was passed and in fact affected many of the young people in attendance, who felt they had been taken advantage of when taking part in a period of placement in a position of work. In addition, the motion ‘The Scottish Youth Parliament believes that the military recruitment age should be raised from 15 years and 7 months to 18 years’ was not passed. This undoubtedly caused controversy as many believed this was necessary to safeguard human rights in accordance with the United Nations Committee on the rights of the Child’s UK.
A particularly important issue which was discussed by Labour MP, Monica Lennon, was period poverty. She highlighted the shocking figures. She rightly statesd that, “In many homes, schools and workplaces embarrassment and stigma around periods is a barrier to hygiene and health care. We need to tackle the scandal of period poverty by first talking about the problem and then taking action to eradicate it.” We can be certain that our youth in Parliament fully support those who continually suffer with this major issue. However, we are lucky to say that Scotland is the first country set to introduce free sanitary products.
Hearing of Faith’s positive experience and journey with the Scottish Youth Parliament certainly makes me feel lucky to live in a country which truly represents the wants and needs of the people. We only need to look across the pond to see a man set on building a wall to divide and separate people. We should feel privileged to see that our country wants to break down such barriers and allow our nation’s young people to have a say in the running of the country.
