Euan Blockley, energy broker
My first girlfriend was an ardent Labour supporter and her mother was SNP. She would get angry because I would sit for hours at a time arguing with her mum, so she would leave the room as a result. I think that’s healthy debate, but she didn’t.
I’m hopefully going to stand next year in May to be a council candidate for the Conservative Party in Glasgow. I hope to light a fire in the City Chambers, metaphorically speaking. Preferably I’d want to stand somewhere local so a lot of people know who I am and I know what kind of problems they face.
My mum and dad were Labour voters and had always voted Labour, I knew nothing else. Tony Blair was the prime minister and it was Labour, Labour, Labour.
I eventually looked into it on the internet and a new Tory was born. I realised that there was more out there than just the Labour Party. I don’t think enough young people today keep their mind open to all the different opinions.
It was only when the European question came up I realised that there was a difference between me and the Conservative Party. That issue was so important to me at the time that I joined UKIP as a result. Do I regret that decision now? Of course I do, but I have learned from that mistake. From UKIP, I learned not to take everything a politician says as 100% genuine, to not trust people who claim to be martyrs of the working class, which is exactly what Nigel Farage did.
When I left UKIP, I went on BBC Two’s Scotland 2016 to talk about it. The next morning in school, a deputy head teacher who didn’t like me much pulled me aside and asked if he could have a word. I thought my goodness me, I’m in trouble. He then asked for my autograph. That sort of experience is surreal. Being at school and having been on TV the night before doesn’t happen to a lot of people.
I hope the younger generations at the school I went to, Hillpark Secondary in Glasgow, will look at that and think, even at 18, that the sky’s the limit. You don’t have to be 40 to get on TV or be involved in politics, you can do it at any age. Be a Tory if you want, there’s no restriction. Maybe young people, whether they share the same political opinions or not, will look at me and think he’s done it so why can’t I?
The majority of my mates at school didn’t care about politics. They were more interested in football, girls and passing exams. The ones who did care disagreed with me, but they were all willing to hear me out and listen to me.
I go out clubbing on Saturdays. I am a normal teenager. That’s the thing that some people can’t understand, that you can be a Tory on one hand and a teenager on the other. Whether you’re Tory, Labour or whatever, you’re out to have a good time, get drunk and have a laugh. Politics has nothing to do with it.
When I was leafleting for the No campaign in Neilston I was spat on and called "Tory scum". He was six foot, looked to be in his mid-50s, I would say. He was clearly passionate about Scottish independence, but to go to the length of spitting on someone who was at that time 16 years old is frankly vulgar.
I believe where things are going right now, voters are giving the Scottish Conservatives a chance. I hope they give me a chance too, a young person just getting involved in politics.
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