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2003-07-08 - 10:58 p.m. Taking democracy to the schools. Today we held a special area panel at the High School as part of the democracy day. Area Panels take the form of presentations and then a question and answer session. We decided we didn't want to bore the 14 year olds so we arranged a presentation about the new entertainment complex, Xscape, that is due to open in September. There was another about the new council intitiative against litter and anti-social behaviour. I would have liked a presentation about the waste strategy currently being consulted about as I thought young people are interested in the environment, including subjects like recycling. However, we didn't have the time. The question and answer session showed that the young people have a sense of national as well as local issues. We were asked what affect would any regional assembly have on Castleford and why tax on cigarettes is higher here than in other countries. My answer to that latter query is that because the British media usually presents a negative view on taxation the government tends to tax items like cigarettes and petrol where it can socially justify it on the grounds of, say, health or reducing pollution. The meeting went better than the "adult" version where, unlike at the school, a vocal few in the audience try to place members of the panel in a bad light and try to ask all the questions. I enjoyed the meeting and was pleased to hand out certificates to the attendees.
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