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4 THE NEW REVIEW | 01. 1 0. 17 | The Observer

SIMONE LIA

Do adults understand how bad it is?

My parents understand... they wanted

to make sure I was OK. But from what

I see, people are like, “kids these days,

it’s a weak generation”. Yes, we don’t

have to do maths without calculators,

we certainly don’t have to deal with

abusive teachers, but just because

those have gone away doesn’t mean

new things won’t crop up. When

the speech came out, someone said:

“ Brilliant speech – Lauren has backed

the idea that NHS mental health

staff should be a part of schools.”

Now I’m for that, it seems like a cool

idea, but it’s a little bit like putting a

bucket under a leak. It’s not treating

the underlying cause, which is that

kids are threatened with the idea

of failure more than they were, and

not really empowered to succeed

like they should be. There’s more

and more emphasis put on having a

good education.

Does that make teenagers fear the

consequences of failure?

To avoid being stuck in a dead-end

job, somewhere you don’t feel like you

are making a diff erence or don’t have

a good quality of life, education is the

route out. And that’s why we are so, so

terrifi ed of not doing well.

Do you come from a political family?

I come from a working-class

background, and my stepmum is in

the NHS, she’s a staff nurse. But while

my mum’s never been one to say “I

don’t vote”, she’s not political really.

So how did you get into politics?

When I was 12 or 13 I had really bad

trouble concentrating when I was

writing, so I thought I’d try podcasts

to listen to in the background. I found

some really heavy left wing ones,

and the more I listened the more it

made sense. Then I found some more

accessible ones that taught me more

about American politics. But mainly

it’s YouTube videos – one of my all-

time political idols is Owen Jones.

Did you join Labour because of

Jeremy Corbyn?

is just a hobby that got out of hand.

It was never meant to be a career –

frankly I’m not too sure I trust career

politicians. The careers I’ve looked at

are teaching, journalism.

Young people are often accused of

political apathy. Is that unfair?

Russell Brand said something very

poignant on Question Time : “If you

really want people to engage in

politics, just give them something

to fucking vote for.” That’s what

was holding us back. Nobody

was representing us. The turnout

among 18- to 24-year-olds [at the

last election] was estimated to be

about 64% – we are not quite at the

level of oct ogenarians, but we are

getting there. I don’t think that’s

going to go backwards, provided

political parties can engage people

in an authentic way. Just make sure

people can trust you, and you don’t

come across as someone who doesn’t

really believe what they say, and you’ll

win our hearts.

Interview by Gaby Hinsliff

Lauren Stocks , a 16-year-old

schoolgirl from Greater Manchester,

went viral last week with a

passionate speech to the Labour

party conference, claiming new

GCSE exams are putting teenagers

under intolerable stress. She won

a standing ovation from delegates

as she warned of classrooms full

of “spaced-out, stressed-out,

depressed kids in a battlefi eld where

they can’t aff ord pens and paper”.

Lauren, who joined the Labour

party two years ago, is now doing

A-levels in history, sociology and

politics at a sixth-form college in

Rusholme , Manchester.

What did it feel like to be up on that stage?

You know when you’re slightly

disorientated? I felt detached from

the fact that I was talking to about

1,500 people. I wasn’t aware it was

being fi lmed [for television], although

I knew there were cameras there to

project it to people in the hall who

couldn’t see.

How were you chosen to speak?

You’ve got a panel of about six people,

and about 1,500 constituency Labour

party delegates and 300 trade union

delegates, and they’re like “we want

to select three people to speak”.

People just have to put their hand up,

and the more fl amboyant you are the

more likely you are to get picked : you

get people waving manifestos around,

or I think it was light sabers one year.

I wasn’t too fl amboyant, because I

wanted the time to be able to say what

I wanted to say.

You obviously felt very strongly about

GCSE stress...

It was just absolutely terrible – in an

after-school revision lesson, at one

point I sat next to a friend and said:

“ Mate, are you OK?” and you know

when someone goes white? She just

shook her head. We had these tests

so they could assess your mental

arithmetic through the course, and if

you failed it you had to resit until you

passed, and that caused a lot of people

a lot of anxiety.

Th e Manchester schoolgirl became the

talk of the Labour party conference after

her impassioned speech went viral

I did. I felt a little bit defl ated,

because I thought : “ I don’t think

parliamentary politics is something

I want to engage in but I know

anything outside the box will never

get anywhere.” And then Jeremy

Corbyn got on the ballot.

Were you nervous making the speech?

I was bricking it! It wasn’t quite

nervousness, it was more adrenaline

really. I have generalised anxiety

disorder, so nerves and adrenaline

often come across as passion and

anger. The last two years of Labour

party activism have helped me

with that.

How have they helped?

One of my big anxieties is not being

able to help people and live a useful

life, so for me to be able to stand up

and do stuff like this, it makes me feel

slightly more self-assured that I ’m not

wasting my life away.

How was your fi rst conference?

I’ve met all the political greats –

Dennis Skinner , Ian Lavery [Labour’s

general election organiser] and after

my speech Len McCluskey asked

me for a photo. And Jon Lansman

from Momentum – I was saying “I

literally owe you my teenage years ”

• and John McDonnell. I met Jeremy
  Corbyn briefl y as I was trying to
  fi nd my way somewhere and he
  was like, “Loving your hair”. And I
  met Ed Miliband at the Momentum
  quiz, and Emily Thornberry. It’s
  been amazing.

Do you want to go into politics yourself?

My family are like, “You’ll be PM one

day, you know” and I’m just: “No!”

Hands up, the Labour party for me

Q & A

I met Jeremy Corbyn

briefl y as I was

trying to fi nd my

way and he was like,

‘Loving your hair’

AGENDA

‘Labour party

activism has

helped me

with anxiety’:

Lauren Stocks.

Antonio Olmos

for the Observer

Lauren

Stocks