Trafford's MYP's attended the UK Youth Parliament national sitting in Belfast. Member of Youth Parliament Shereen Patel reports on her trip....

MYPs from all across the UK came together to take part in workshops, debates, and develop the UK Youth Parliament’s campaigns for the year ahead.

We had been told that a special guest speaker would be appearing, it turned out not to be just any speaker, but Mr. John Bercow, the Speaker of the House Of Commons. He presented a really inspiring and interesting speech, followed by a round of questions and answers.

The first debate was described ”hectic“; the introduction at the beginning was about the Youth Workers. At the beginning a girl from our Region got up to talk about youth services in her area, this was the beginning of some drama. She announced to the parliament that all our youth workers and services were at risk from “savage cuts.” This caused uproar in the hall, mainly in support.

The Annual Sitting was fantastic, successful and fun! Everything went well; campaign development and manifesto groups worked well, the fringe meetings were engaging, the speeches inspiring, the food spectacular, and, most importantly, young representatives from across the UK were exercising their right to take meaningful action on the issues which matter to the young people they represented.

I was honoured to be able to represent the Young People of Trafford and their views on the issues that mattered to them. I also want to say thanks to Stacy (Youth Worker) for organizing our trip and the Council for funding the money.