Today, Thursday 4 July, is polling day. While many have made their mind up on who they are voting for at the ballot station, what does the next generation think?

Nub News spoke to sixth form students studying politics at Teddington School to get their opinions of the general election race so far, and learn more about the political landscape facing the area's younger demographics.

Between them, the group shared their thoughts on a wide range of topics, including their feelings on the current government, how politics can be more inclusive of young people, and key issues in the local constituency.

Which party do you feel best represents young people?

Josh: "Neither of the duopoly. I think it would probably be the Lib Dems."

Ethan: "Yeah, I agree."

Josh: "The Conservatives at the moment [...] they're for people who already have [achieved] the goals that you want to achieve in society."

Lucas: "They're especially trying to bring back the older voters."

Josh: "Yeah, with the triple-lock pension as well…"

How do you feel about the current Conservative government?

Ethan: "Not great. Not great at all."

Josh: "I just feel like they're disorganised, that they don't have any party unity, that everyone's trying to rebel against each other."

Who is going to be the party to watch?

Josh: "Obviously it's going to be Labour. They're going to have a considerable majority I think."

Lucas: "Yeah, I think they'll definitely get a lot more seats and take a lot of seats off the Conservatives. Because we saw in the last general election that a lot of Labour seats were taken by the Conservatives, so I think they might win them back."

How do you think the new Reform Party will perform?

Josh: "I think the job of Reform will be not to win seats, I think it will be to take away Conservative support, because their policies [...] target a certain type of conservatives, the ones who are not as politically educated, and think eveyone and everything around them is falling to bits.

"I mean, the argument that immigration's made everything overcrowded… The only overcrowded bits are big towns and cities. You know, this country still has a lot of space. So, I think personally, I think Reform is for the politically uneducated."

Ethan: "I think also for older people, because older people are the largest group of voters that will vote in general elections, which we have seen in the past. [Voters] who would traditionally vote Conservative, but they don't think they're hardline enough to vote for. 

"So then you've got this option of Reform, who are bringing the idea that Britain is broken, that everything needs to be fixed, and [that] the way to do that is, handle immigration, get rid of net zero, things like that, which old people will typically agree with. I think that's just how they're going to get their votes."

Do you think the Lib Dems will be voted out locally?

Ethan: "I don't believe so."

Josh: "There's no way."

What local issues will be key in how people will vote?

Josh: "Potholes [...] not enough resources are going towards fixing the roads, and it's just going to cost everyone more money. The roads are something that everyone uses and they have to be maintained properly.

"Austerity and the cutting of public services… everyone uses public services, they're not just for the less well-off."

Ethan: "I think in this area we're very fortunate not to necessarily have large issues that affect a wide range of people. But I think in other areas around the country there are issues such as potholes or not funding public services such as community centres and stuff like that.

"We're here in one of the richest areas in London and we don't have the issues that some people may face, so I think we're quite fortunate in that sense."

Lucas: "There's always on the news about knife crime and stuff like that [...] it's not really being dealt with, especially with the conservatives in power. They're not really seeming to care. 

"A lot of people have spoken out about it as well, but it's not really a top issue compared to what they're focusing on like immigration. But I think if we, you know, focus on local [issues], it's quite big."

Lucy: "Environmental issues [...] sewage going into the Thames, all of that sort of stuff."

How do you think UK politics could change to better involve young people, and make them feel more heard?

Josh: "I think in order for younger people to be more representative within UK politics, the structure of the House of Commons would have to change."

"There would have to be more influence from parties like the Liberal Democrats, because young people are more at the forefront of their policies and their ideology as opposed to the Conservatives.

"So I think it's not a case of reforming UK politics, but it would more be a case of who's in power."

Ethan: "I think also changing the voting system [...] would be helpful, to have smaller parties which may necessarily favour young people, rather than the two large parties who are consistently going to win elections, who are not necessarily going to align themselves with younger voters.

"So I think if you had a more proportional system, I think that would appeal to young people as well. [Proportional representation] or AMS, something like that, would be much better."

Additional Member Systems give voters two ballot papers on election day: one to vote on their local MP, and a second to vote for which party they want to have seats in Parliament. This method is already used to elect the parliaments of Scotland and Wales, as well as the London Assembly.

Do you think young people are politically aware, and is there media covering politics for young people?

Ethan: "No, I don't think there is. I think most people who aren't doing politics have very little idea what's going on, especially if you ask, for instance, my friends around here. Most of them won't know who most of the parties are, or who's running in their local area."

Josh: "People are and they aren't. I think because of social media, everyone's now grabbed by a headline, which is often either not true or taken out of context, so then everyone will get really angry about something they might have seen online, but then not understand everything around it.

"I think young people now are maybe more politically aware than they used to be through social media, but I think they are less politically educated, because the stuff that gets spread around on social media is often not legitimate."

What do you think about political parties using social media?

Josh: "They make UK politics look like a joke."

Ethan: "Yeah. They're all making fun of each other really. For instance, the Conservatives are saying Labour's doing no change through a popular meme."

"It's good now that they're doing it in a general election, but if they did it consistently, as something to post on Instagram or TikTok, I think that would be much better."

Lucas: "They'd rather attack each other than actually establish what they want to bring in, or change. They mainly just attack what's going wrong."

Josh: "I think social media is attention-grabbing, as opposed to actually informing."

Teddington School has also announced its own mock election to take place today, where students will cast their votes on who they would want to see representing Twickenham constituency in Parliament.

Thank you to our partner Teddington School for supporting our community-oriented, clickbait-free news in the Teddington area. 

Without them, our other partners, and our readers, Teddington Nub News would not be possible. Thank you.