#yvuk

There’s a lot of interest at the moment on who exactly these mysterious 10 MPs are that the Conservatives have teamed up with to get their majority. A lot of misinformation is spreading, so here’s a quick run-down of the Democratic Unionist Party of Northern Ireland.

The DUP were established in 1971 by Ian Paisley, the leading figure for loyalism during the Troubles. Although he would later be instrumental in the peace process in Northern Ireland, in 1971 he was involved with paramilitary groups fighting to keep NI under British rule.

They opposed the Good Friday Agreement due in party to the allowance for Sinn Fein to hold government. Other reasons included clauses for the early release of paramilitary political prisoners and lack of accountability of the Northern Ireland Executive and the North/South Ministerial Council.

The majority of their support is in the North of Northern Ireland, with border constituencies voting in Sinn Fein MPs in the 2017 general election.

Their leader is Arlene Foster, who serves as the First Minister of Northern Ireland.

They advocate for the union of Northern Ireland with the UK. Arlene Foster said during the 2017 election campaign that she does not intend for NI to have a border poll (a referendum on reunification of Ireland) in her life-time.

The DUP were at the centre of the Renewable Heating Incentives scandal. Arlene Foster, as Minister for the department in charge of the scheme, was heavily implicated. The poorly worded RHI scheme went over budget by £400m and the poor structure of the scheme made it prime fodder for fraudsters. Foster personally campaigned to keep the scheme open even after experts pointed out its flaws.

In 1977 the DUP campaigned against the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland. They no longer follow this policy, although many DUP members still see homosexuality as a sin due to strong religious ties.

In terms of Brexit, the DUP oppose a hard Irish border and support a soft-Brexit.

The DUP support triple-lock pensions and the Winter Fuel Allowance, in direct opposition to current Conservative policies.

They have vetoed same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland since 2015, despite its legalisation in the rest of the UK and in the Republic.

The DUP are strongly ‘pro-life’, and unanimously voted against a proposal by Labour to protect women from prosecution who abort their foetuses using pills bought online. Their stance on abortion also led to opposition to extra funding for international family planning programmes.

New IFS research today shows that the average debt a student has on graduating university has risen to over £50,000. For the students coming from the lowest income families, this can be as much as £57,000 with £5,800 of that purely from interest accrued since starting their courses.

Under the Conservative government, student loans have been increased from £3,000 per year to £9,000 per year. Maintenance grants for low-income students have been replaced by extra loan allowance. Student loans are set to increase in line with inflation (or by £250 per year) for the foreseeable future, starting in September, regardless of teaching quality.

The IFS sees only two winners from the current system, and it’s certainly not the students who benefit. Students earning the minimum amount of repayments - which has been frozen at £21,000 for several years - are estimated to be 30% worse off than their equivalents under the old loan system. No, the only beneficiaries are the universities (although not 90% of their employees) and the government.

So what do you think, voters? How can we, as a voting force, work together to end this stranglehold the UK government has on us? We want to hear your ideas to fix what is becoming a very, very broken system, one which stifles recent graduates and the UK economy as a whole. 

YVUK can’t really offer any incentives, but that doesn’t diminish our message.

If you are aged 18 to 25, we need you to vote! Young voters are not being heard in this country and that has to change. Today is your chance.

390,000 young voters were registered on the very last day - imagine if every one of them were to vote today? 

Don’t let the pensioners and baby boomers dictate the direction of this country. Your vote does matter.

So get yourselves down to a polling station by 10pm - maybe grab yourself a meal deal on the way back to congratulate yourselves for engaging with your country - and spread the word.

Let us know if you’ve voted and we’ll give you a shout-out and a surprise GIF (if that’s something you’re into). You can tag us at #YVUK or leave us a message in our ask.

So long as you vote, we’re happy. So vote!

A Facebook friend shared this post by @RIFOTD [x] with one of our team.

“Between 1985 and 2000, 1094 people in the UK were killed by terrorism. Between 2000 and 2015, 90 were. Since 2015 32 have, which suggests it might have gone us since 2015, but it’s still nowhere near as high as it was in the 80s and 90s”

When a country experiences many tragedies in a short space of time, it’s easy to forget that we as a generation have grown up in one of the most peaceful periods in the UK’s history. 

This month, be it Manchester, Westminster, London Bridge or Finsbury Park - these events will not define the UK. 

The actions of people define the UK. The communities we build - crossing race and religion and age and class - will define the UK. The UK is people and graft and belonging.

There is hope where there is kindness.

The most intriguing graphic from GE2017 so far. Why?

The only employment status to vote more for the Tories than for Labour was Retired.

Working Britain is being over-ruled by the old. Who’s being silenced? The young!

Every young person who doesn’t vote compounds the problem. Don’t be that person. Don’t let your friends be that person.

We will be living in this country long after the retired have passed on. 

Keep on fighting. Keep the momentum. Keep shouting until young voices are heard.

They’re the focus of every political blogger today: just what is going on with the DUP.

Just last week, they were an unknown fringe party this side of the Irish Sea.

On Thursday, they looked like the most important party in Britain, that final puzzle piece that would give the Tories their majority in Parliament - if some sort of deal could be arranged.

Now? That deal looks very, very shaky.

The Queen’s Speech, after a 2 day postponement, is tomorrow. An official deal with the DUP has not yet been agreed. Without some sort of official deal in place, it will be a lot more difficult for the Tories to pass their laws through the House of Commons.

The DUP say the UK are taking them for granted. At this stage, it looks like one of the major stumbling blocks is the DUP’s demand for the removal of air passenger duty in NI (the tax you pay to fly from UK airports, payable on booking). The Tories are hesitant to consent to this in case it leads to similar calls from Scotland, Wales and England.

It looks like the public will have to wait until tomorrow to see if the DUP deal can be made in time.

Whatever’s going on, it’s certainly nothing strong nor stable.

Sources:

The Guardian

BBC News

Latest YouGov poll suggests voter turnout among 18-24s much lower than expected.

This is likely as a result of the inflated figure touted by the Metro, which was in fact referencing estimated turnout in Tottenham alone (around 72%).

Turnout figures are still way up on the 2015 general election.

What the figures suggest is that progress has been made, but much work remains to really bring young voters into the political conversation.