Wirral Council Leader Dave Jackson (Labour) writes exclusively for the Wirral Globe.

DO you mind if I get a little personal and ask you some questions? It's just that the Prime Minister has named the date for a General Election and there's something I really want to know.

Are you under 30? If you are, do you believe politics has any relevance to your every day life? Are you going to vote in the General Election?

I'm not about to launch into a party political broadcast. It's just that I was stunned by something I read in a paper the other day. I'm wondering if it applies here on Wirral. Although the election campaign hasn't officially started yet, there are posters up everywhere and TV, radio and the newspapers are all full of interviews with politicians, mistakes by politicians, statements by politicians. Yet despite all this publicity, in this piece I read about in Northampton most of the people questioned, once they'd named John Major and Tony Blair, failed to name any other politician or the party to which they belonged. They had no idea about the policies or decisions that person might be responsible for. What's worse, the reporter couldn't find anyone under 30 who had voted in the past, who intended to vote this year, or who believed that politics had anything at all to do with them.

To be honest with you, I found that really scary. It's as if we see politicians just as actors in some tedious TV drama and, as an audience, we're so bored with the plot that we're not even watching anymore. But the problem is that actors may make us laugh or cry, but they don't decide how much we get in benefits, or what our pension is, or how many houses should be built in the next 10 years, or what we can afford in rent, or whether or not to tax food, or who will look after us when we get old, or how many people should stay on the dole queue, or how many young people should go to college and how much they can afford to eat while they're there. And politicians do. And that's just for starters.

The truth is, we may think we're out there on our own, but someone, somewhere is making a decision that will affect us. We have a right to choose who that someone is. And we have a right to know what kind of decisions they're likely to take.

No young parent with small children would be happy to leave them in the care of a complete stranger. So why does it seem as if large numbers of young adults are happy to leave their future and their children's future in the hands of decision makers they don't know, haven't chosen, and haven't questioned? It doesn't make sense. Maybe we're not like that here on the Wirral and the situation was unique to Northampton. Or maybe that reporter was right and 18 years of elections without any change in government has made young people cynical, made them believe voting won't change anything, because in their lifetime it hasn't.

If so, this is the year to test the theory that nothing ever changes. If you're under 30, do me a favour. Ask questions. Find out what future the different parties are planning for you and your children. Don't let things just happen. Choose the decision makers you want. Take control - use your vote.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.