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UKYP Annual Sitting 2011

The UKYP Annual Sitting 2011 took place from 22nd - 24th July at Leeds University.

4 Wiltshire Assembly of Youth (WAY) members made the journey to Leeds for this important event! The 3 UK Youth Parliament members from Wiltshire Jamie Capp, Ellie Pullen and Chloe Harris-Alba all attended, along with a deputy member of youth parliament Ellie Vesey Thompson who was attending as a media rep.

The UKYP annual sitting is a chance for all the elected members of UK Youth Parliament to come together and hear from guest speakers, share campaigning techniques, develop their skills as members of youth parliament and create the UKYP manifesto.

The sitting was officially opened on Friday by the speaker of the House of Commons Rt Hon John Bercow MP. Mr Bercow spoke about his passion and support for UKYP and how much he is looking forward to inviting UKYP members once again to debate at the House of Commons later this year.

Another speaker at the Friday afternoon opening ceremony was an inspiring lady called Iby Knill who was born in 1923 and is a holocaust surviver. Iby spoke openly and honestly about her experiences of the holocaust and has recently published a book called "The Woman without a number" detailing this. Iby's message to young people was "we are all the same under the skin".

Young people did 5 - 6 workshops over the weekend. Young people decided which workshops they wished to attend, workshop topics included: How to debate, How to plan an event, How to engage school councils, chicks in politics, International development etc... Young people also spent a good amount of time developing their manifesto and balloting on a range of issues.

On the Friday night, UKYP members were showcased to a variety of UKYP talent with the UKYP talent show! Acts ranged from contemporary dance to a Michael Jackson impression. I don't think we had any Britain's Got Talent winners amongst us though!

The key speaker on Saturday was Tim Loughton, MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children) who took questions from several young people. Questions ranged from 'Do you agree with votes at 16?' to challenges about cuts to youth work. One question he was asked, he needed time to think about so later tweeted his reply. the question was "If you were a fly, whose wall would you like to be on now?" His reply was Rupert Murdock!

The Saturday night enteratinment was a silent disco! For those of you who are unsure what this is- everyone has headphones on and are able to flick between two different stations. It is really funny as depending on what station you listen to- only those listening to the same station as you will be dancing to the same beat! If you take your headphones off, you can hear everyone singing!

Finally on the Sunday the event was closed by Natasha Engel MP who like Tim Loughton was willingly confronted with a range of questions from UKYP members. Natasha Engel was unable to answer who she would poo on if she was a pigeon but when asked "If you were an animal, which animal would you be?" her reply was "I'm not too sure, but I definately wouldn't be a pigeon!"

Overall the weekend seemed to be a great success and UKYP members enjoyed themselves but worked hard!

Check out the UKYP Blog: http://ukyouthparliament.wordpress.com/

Date Posted: Friday 29 July 11

Author: Christina Gregory