'Citizenship and Identity: socio-economic inequality, political identity and participation'. Reflections on the 2014 Five Nations Conference in Belfast (3)

By Louise Cameron MSYP, Chair, The Scottish Youth Parliament, Scotland

The Five Nations Network conference in Belfast was a real treat. The opportunity to meet delegates from other organisations in my country as well as meeting the delegates from the other nations was really motivating. It was interesting to see the variety between policies in each of the nations: I think few of us expected our main issues to be so different from each others. It was promising to come together in a room with many like minded people from organisations similar and I am certain most delegates brought some ideas back with them - I certainly did!

It was so special to get to see Stormont, a truly remarkable experience that I will never forget. The building was beautiful and hearing the history of the building and of Belfast was very touching. I particularly liked hearing about the "WIMPS" project that involved young people lobbying their local politicians. It was really interesting learning about the different politics and providing some ideas to help inspire young people to get involved, as well as taking away some ideas that could be applied in Scotland. I met some really lovely people during the conference and really enjoyed the experience.