Island Echo is pleased to welcome a new monthly column from the Isle of Wight’s Member of Youth Parliament, Aydin Gumus.
Hello there! If you don’t know me, my name is Aydin, and I am the elected Member of Youth Parliament for the Isle of Wight. This is the first column I have written (hopefully not the last!), so I am just as new to all of this as you are! So what can you expect from me? I want to use this monthly column to provide you guys with an exclusive insight into my work and life as a Youth MP, whether it be sharing with you my thoughts on big decisions impacting young Islanders, presenting details of projects that I am currently collaborating on, or giving you my overall inside perspective of important events or meetings that I have to attend as your youth representative. Since the long awaited start of the Summer Holidays, I have been very busy. As part of my Youth Vaping campaign, I have written a letter to Wes Streeting, newly elected Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, regarding my huge concern over the lack of effective and efficient Youth Vaping interventions, and gave recommendation for a more urgent approach when it comes to new legislation surrounding disposable vapes and vape trading standards. I have also been organising the Isle of Wight Education virtual conference 2024 (#IWEC2024) on the 19th of September. Here I will address secondary education leaders and local & regional decision makers from across the Island, with the kind support of members of the Isle of Wight Youth Council. Topics will include drug usage, opportunities and careers, and of course our school system, and I will announce my plans and guidance to inform future decisions made in schools on the Island. I am super excited for this event, as I hope it will be quite a high-profile youth-led event, and it will be a great opportunity to enhance and amplify Youth Voice. Not long ago, I was able to attend Cowes Week alongside the Bay Youth Project, as we were invited by the Royal Navy to attend, and board the HMS Tyne which was harboured for the celebrations. It was a fantastic opportunity where we got to meet the amazing crew, and experience a guided tour of the vessel. There were even opportunities to get hands on with the artillery and the navigating system inside the bridge! Don’t worry, the weapons were not loaded, however I do think we must have given passengers on the Red Funnel car ferry a fright as they sailed past us with a huge turret pointed at them, which for proportion uses bullets bigger than a 15cm ruler. This Thursday I am off again, this time to Portsmouth with a group of other young people involved in Community Action Isle of Wight. We will be visiting Base, a new £200k music and media facility for young people at Guildhall Trust, and afterwards we will then travel and visit a council run youth club and adventure playground. Our day will conclude with a visit to a youth community skatepark and wellbeing hub, and a potential meet up with the Portsmouth Community #BeeWell Survey group. This will be a fantastic opportunity to share and take back some ideas for what things can be implemented to benefit young people on the Island as new future developments in youth provision commence like the upcoming renovation of Sandown Town Hall, and also how we can improve our current youth services. To end this month’s column, I just wanted to congratulate all students who have just received their A-Level, T-Level and BTEC results, and wish the best of luck to all those who will soon be getting their GCSE results on Thursday. I want to remind you all that no matter what you achieve, an envelope can never define you as a person, and so don’t dwell too much on the past, and go into your next steps wholeheartedly, as you can achieve every success in life when you work for it. If you have any questions or views you would like to share with me, please contact my Youth MP email [email protected]. Aydin Gumus MYP
Great to hear the voice of our Youth MP who has already made a brilliant start to his term by engaging with change makers across the piece. We’ll done Island Echo for giving Aydin a monthly column which I await with interest.
so long as change is agreed by the majority, for the better and not for the sake of satisfying a lust for power, control and the pleasure of bending people to your ways.
To many people in politics seem to forget, that they have been elected to oversee the administrative functions of society, to serve the benefit of society and to ensure that they remember – they are not dictators or demi gods and can be removed from office if needed by the very society they serve, if it is deemd by society that they are becoming drunk on their own power, believing their own hype and ignoring the will of the people
What, exactly, was the point of that diatribe?
perhaps if you read it, you will understand or are you just demonstrating the usual level of intelligence of we expect from the electorate
Well, I wouldn’t have commented if I hadn’t read it… durr
What a breath of fresh air, not to mention that rare thing – words that come across as sincere and honest from someone in politics! Looking forward to reading your missives, Aydin – and very best of luck with your endeavours.
don’t hold your breath andrew – once this individual gets his snout wedged in the political money trough, he will start lying through his teeth like the rest of them.
Unfortunately, nothing that Aydin or others like him do or say will have any impact whatsoever on the feral youths that are so abundant these days, not just here but across the UK as a whole.
Sorry to say that the troublemakers and anti-social youngsters of today will simply laugh in disdain at someone like Aydin. I’m definitely not being disrespectful or mean by stating that, it’s just a fact that, in general, the majority of youths won’t feel in any way connected, or be affected, by what Aydin and his peers in the ‘Youth Parliament’ do or say.
It’s actually the adults, the parents of the out-of-control feral youths, who need targetting. The kids will follow the role model of the parent(s) unfortunately.
shouldn’t always blame the parents…
as a kid I was always up to no good and enjoyed every minute of it. I certainly didn’t want peoples attention, as it would mean being prevented from being a miscreant. My parents were hard working people who abided by the law. I just didn’t want to conform and didn’t want to be a good little boy. If i was ever caught and punished, I was remorseful for effect, never really cared, just walked away and did the same thing again – intentionally.
malevolance, destruction and just being a nuisance were things I enjoyed and when it annoyed adults, i did it even more.
am i the same as an adult – nope, just grew out of it and moved on.
I would have just mocked people like Aydin, when I was a kid.
Reading these inane comments will give Aydin a valuable insight into the “baying mob” who constitute a sizeable proportion of the electorate. He will rapidly learn to zone out when the bile starts flying from their mouths or fingertips. I wish you the best of luck Aydin for trying to make a difference rather than being just another moaner.
if the “baying mob” as you so eloquently put it, represents a sizeable portion of the electorate then he and other politicians would do well to listen to what is being said – after all, a sizeable portion does have the habit of deciding who gets the job at the elections.
As we have just seen in the General Election, the “baying mob” failed to get sufficient support to win many seats because (thankfully) the majority of the people in this country are decent and not bigoted racists.