Dear Sir or Madam,
This email I am sending you is of my general concerns as a student and as a citizen of this country, I shall cover various points and I would appreciate it if you could read my email. First of all though I shall go through why I chose to include you in this email.
Regarding the MP's of Nottingham and Gedling this is area where I reside in the summer when I'm not at University.
Regarding the MP's of Plymouth this is where I study my degree in Criminology and the Criminal Justice System with Law.
Regarding Geoffrey Cox the MP of Torridge, this is where I used to live before my parents moved in 2011.
Regarding David Cameron, George Osbourne, Ian Duncan Smith and Michael Gove of the Conservative Party this is because I feel each of you are relevant to issues I am going to bring up within this email.
Regarding Ed Miliband, Ed Balls, Stephen Twigg and Liam Byrne of the Labour Party, I believe you are in the equivalent opposition members to the people mentioned in the Conservative Party.
Regarding Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, I believe his party once built a reputation about caring for young people as well as the rest of the country.
Regarding George Galloway and Caroline Lucas, I believe being sole representatives of their party that they should also receive this email (I have not included parties from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales due to the slight differences regarding having seperate parliaments as well as Westminster and my knowledge not spreading to how this effects their roles regarding the concerns in this email).
First of all may I congratulate you on winning the seats that you did in the last General Election. I would also like to thank you for being part of the Parliament that has discovered the truth of the Hillsborough disaster and I hope that this leads to those families getting the justice that they deserve.
I am an average 20 year old student attending the University of Plymouth, I attend all my lectures and carry out all my essays to what I believe is the best of my ability, however I also enjoy the social aspects of University too. I believe this is the same with many of my friends who agree with the majority of the concerns which I shall raise in this email.
First of all I would like to highlight my concern of a lack of opportunities for students in the Summer, due partly to the current state of the economy which let's be blunt, it's not exactly great. Therefore many students like myself live summer with little money so the chance to go out and do something can't be taken, this is a point that applies even more to a rural community miles away from the nearest town. Without money students are left all day being this lazy picture that many of the media seem to paint of them, but this may not be out of choice like many perceive. Even in a prosperous area the amount of jobs going for students is not great. Why? you may be asking. This answer would be that a lot of employers now don't have the funds to invest in extra staff for the summer, this may involve time taken by training the individuals or simply that the public have less money so despite it being summer they don't feel they need these employees. I realise that one of the things you may email back are the opportunities to volunteer. I would like to clarify here that although my next point will cover it more that because of the rent and money involved with some university courses that just volunteering and gaining nothing financially can be detrimental to the student. But if these students are not getting an income (and only a few really have the "bank of mum and dad" as our parents are generally not millionaires), then it can be detrimental to businesses that depend on young people, these businesses being for instance nightclubs, which hold a lot of jobs for people in the society.
So now onto my second point, the student loan. Now here I'm not talking about tuition fees despite my anger that this was put up to £9,000 for students the year below me, which means many years with a debt in their name, there were alternatives that I can point out to each of you about this (a graduate tax for the graduates who are earning over £30,000 for instance), but I really wish to talk about the actual maintenance loan. I read somewhere and have been told by a lecturer before that the rent of a property for a student should be around 50% of the loan. Now I live in Plymouth at term times and I'm living in a house that is £86-£90 a week, which is considerably cheaper than some places. This is costing £4,500 a year however as all landlords seem to charge for June and July despite the fact that exams finish in May in Plymouth. Therefore this year that was £860 extra I've paid for rent without being there. This therefore works out at 75% rather than 50% of the maintenance loan, giving a student £1500 to live on for about 8 months. You may say you can do this, as I know one of the recipients of this email has essentially said, well try it. It isn't easy. Therefore this year that was £860 extra I've paid for rent without being there. This may be easier if every student could get a job, however as I previously highlighted the lack of opportunities made for them because of the economy means only some students can get a job. Even more annoying for some, particularly myself is that when me and my sister who is two years younger did our student finances, in my third year where I have a dissertation which I have always aimed to do a survey using an iPad. Apparently the dissertation that the majority of students have to do in their final year is overlooked by this loan as when I phoned to ask about this my answer was because my degree finishes in May, however with the money students have to put into their dissertation that reason I'm sure you'll agree is outrageous.
Both these point I have risen with you leads to students feeling like they are not listened too which leads to a lack of motivation generally. These young people are the future of the country and therefore making them feel like no hopers is a negative stance. I realise there are the arguments around no money to spend, but this is not the case, if there is more money put in, there will be more money spent by these people eventually in the long term leading to the upturn of the economy and preventing any scenario like Greece. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that the current ways aren't working but are letting people suffer, in the case of this email the young adults, but I'm sure other age groups suffer too. Look at the average age of someone buying their first house for instance, it should be in the early twenties really, we should be looking to get people to settle rather than to live and depend on their parents, it's extra strain on everyone the way people are now in their thirties or forties when they get their own house. It's something to be proud of and someone in their twenties getting their house if they've worked for it and houses are affordable for them, which right now they are not, would lead to pride. It would make communities safer. Me and my cousins were attacked on my sisters 18th birthday last December in Arnold. We hadn't had a drink, but don't you think that the young people who attacked us would be somewhere else, doing something more positive or at least legal, if they felt like they had hope with doing what they want to do with their life, trying to create a fulfilling career rather than watching the country melt down with shops closing, buildings being boarded up, people losing their homes? And let's be honest with people losing their homes, I'm sure we all agree that keeping people in their homes is more important than paying millions to a funeral for a woman that the public seem mixed on.
I also would like to raise both the NHS and legal aid in this email. As a Criminology and Law student, I know stuff about legal aid and as a citizen of the country I'm bound to know about the NHS, and taking these services away, or making people pay for them will lead to even more of a meltdown as a country, I want to see the country be able to proudly shout about how we have a health service for everyone in the country, I want to hear us shout about how whether you be rich or poor you can get a fair trial with a decent lawyer. This country has been proud of these things for decades, privatising the NHS or making legal aid very niche is a very negative thing to do. The NHS is one of the best things about this country and in all honesty I'd rather see the defence budget cut, and nuclear weaponry lessened or stopped as the nation won't be attacked in a way that needs a nuclear bomb, than the NHS, something that doesn't attack other nations but actually looks after it's own people in their times of need. The NHS saved my uncles life when he had a brain tumour and I am incredibly grateful for the great service they gave to him. Privatising it seems to only make it much more of a confusion institution.
I hope you can respond to my concerns. And I hope you can see into my reasoning. There are times with the way the countries run that I would like to stand in an election to just put through my opinions and that of many other people within my age group because right now it's an age group that want to be listened to but just don't seem to get the recognition that they should.
Yours sincerely
James Martin
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