If Year 9 were in Number 10
The Mirror
four nations of the UK for a new truly multimedia election project ‘If Year 9 were in Number 10’.
The idea was to see the election from the vantage-point of working class young people born in 2010 – the equivalent of Thatcher’s Children – who had only ever known Tory rule: the ‘Austerity’ Generation.
Working with videographers from Reach Studio, they met a young woman whose community faces being submerged should sea levels rise, a young man who wants public sector workers like his mum paid fairly, and a teenager who wants NHS waiting lists fixed so his granddad can get a new knee.
The final films had over 100,000 views with over 50k impressions on X, and coverage across social platforms from TikTok to Facebook as well as in the Mirror newspaper.
Gordon Brown wrote that: “For the past 40 years we have talked of Thatcher’s Children…. But the newest generation of children, whose families have never known what economic security means, are the biggest losers.”
In September, the team brought five young people from the project to Labour Conference. Now in Year 10, they will journey to Number 10 next month to give their views to the Prime Minister in person. #Yr9No10 was created by the Mirror Together team. The diverse makeup of the team includes staff from Muslim, LGBTQ+, working class and disabled backgrounds, including a double amputee.
As well as the Year 9s project, the team co-write two weekly Reach newsletters, ‘Mirror Together’ and ‘Untold Stories’, pulling together stories from under-represented communities from across Reach’s editorial output.
They also run the ‘People Move’ Instagram project, which tells the human stories behind the word ‘migrant’ - https://www.instagram.com/peoplemove_ – and other projects that feed in diverse content to the Mirror including the Real Britain social justice column.
The Mirror has also worked with the King’s Trust this year to help young people aged 18 to 30 from underprivileged and underrepresented backgrounds to gain skills and experience that will help them embark on a career in journalism.
Following a competitive interview process, one of the candidates to take part in the scheme has been selected for an 18-month apprenticeship with the Mirror.