With the electorate disengaged from politics and disdainful of politicians, MPs are beginning to fear for their mandate. Faced with the prospect of a whole generation growing up with no interest in the political process, politicians and others increasingly see education as the solution. Myriad youth engagement initiatives - from youth parliaments to citizenship classes, from school councils to proposals to lower the voting age to 16 – are designed to inculcate ‘the habit’ of voting. Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman has said she wants to see teenagers ‘coming straight out of the citizenship class into the polling station’. But will this approach work, and is it legitimate? Critics worry that young people are being taught that voting is a kind of a duty they have to the state, rather than a means by which they can take control of society.

Why would young people vote when politics appears superficial, alien and ineffectual? Do new forms of youth engagement reduce participation to an empty process?  Are schools being burdened with the responsibility for inspiring the young when politicians have failed? How can we best inspire the young to vote and become engaged rather than allowing the growth of ‘whatever’ cynicism in new generations?