posted 1st June 2024
I have something in common with Nelson Mandela. We have both been detained for our part in the struggle against racism.
Nelson Mandela was imprisoned by the racist apartheid regime in South Africa for 26 years between 1964 and 1990. I was kept in for five minutes by Mr Fairman in February 1974.
Mr Fairman was running our school’s mock election, coinciding with the General Election; I was in Year Seven. I was attending a hustings meeting for the National Front candidate. The National Front was a far right party which advocated expelling all non-white immigrants from the UK. (That’s how it was in the 1970s. No one should, or would, be allowed to advocate such policies in any school now.) I was so enraged at this open expression of racism that my friend and I made paper darts out of the candidate’s election addresses and threw them at him. Mr Fairman, the teacher who was running the election, made us stay behind to clear them up. (For the record, unlike Nelson Mandela’s, my detention was justified. I should have engaged the candidate with arguments, not paper darts. It’s fifty years too late, but Mr Fairman, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry.)
That was one of the more memorable incidents in my school’s mock election. But in fact I can remember the whole thing very vividly. We were all made to feel that, even though none of us were old enough to vote, we were participating in the great national debate, the great national choice. The experience was a big factor in firing up my passion for politics and debate. That’s why I’m a firm advocate of schools running mock elections at the same time as General Elections, to engage students as fully as possible in these turning points for their country. Mock elections also align very clearly with the need for schools to promote British Values, in particular democracy and respect for others’ beliefs.
So … how do you run a mock election?
1. Choose your candidates
Have one for each major party. For the current General Election (2024), that’s Conservative, Green, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Reform. Do not allow candidates from the Free Doughnuts At Break Party / Monster Raving Loonies / Taylor Swift Fan Club etc. The mock election should be fun, but it is also an important exercise in civic education, and must be taken seriously.
Pick the best students for the job - the ones who will make the case for their allocated party most clearly and coherently. That makes it likely they will be from more senior years, unless you have exceptionally gifted younger students. If you already have an established debating club, it makes sense to recruit the candidates from there; if not, a ‘tap on the shoulder’ for suitable candidates, perhaps recommended by colleagues, may be the best way.
Explain to candidates that they are not standing for election as themselves. They are there to represent their given party, and their job is to present and explain their party’s policies to the student body, to help them make up their minds which party they want to support. Insist that they study their party’s manifesto as part of their preparation.
If a particular party is so unpopular no one wants to stand for it, tell whoever you lean on to do it that they should regard the task as being like speaking in a debate for a side they don’t agree with. If they still resist, point out that taking the part of Macbeth in the school play does not make you a murderer. Allow them to tell their friends that they don’t really support that party, but you made them do it.
2. The hustings
A hustings is an event at which all the candidates in an election speak and take questions from voters, hoping to persuade them to vote for them. It is an essential part of any election.
Ideally, you will stage the hustings at a whole school assembly, so that the entire student body can hear each of the candidates speaking on behalf of their party. Alternatively, if you have assemblies by year group or Key Stage, you can have the candidates visit each of these in turn. If no assembly slots are available, run the hustings in a lunchtime slot, with attendance voluntary, but publicise it energetically.
Given the time normally allocated to assemblies, you will probably need to restrict candidates to three minute speeches. If you have time, you can add a question and answer session, but moderate it carefully, insisting that questions focus only on matters of policy, not personality. ‘Don’t you think the Rwanda policy is immoral?’ is acceptable; ‘Don’t you think Rishi Sunak is too rich?’ is not.
To make the contest fair, and also for pastoral and disciplinary reasons, insist that the hustings are the only campaigning tool available to candidates. No brightly coloured posters stuck all over the science block, no T shirts with Tanya’s face on, still less free flapjacks if you vote for Freddie. However, if there is buy-in from colleagues, some teacher-led discussion of the different parties’ offers in tutor time or Politics lessons can be a valuable addition.
3. The speeches
Be very clear with candidates that they are to speak only about their party’s policies, and not about personalities. They can challenge other party’s policies in their speeches, but not other parties’ leaders. ‘Labour’s plan to impose VAT on private school fees is unfair on parents who make great sacrifices to support their children’s education’ is a valid point; ‘Keir Starmer is a stuck-up lawyer from London’ is not. You could even go so far as banning them from mentioning any of the leaders’ names.
Remind students that it is not about them. They are just there to advocate, as persuasively as possible, their party’s policies. The result of the election has nothing to do with their personal popularity.
If students point out (correctly) that these Socratic standards for debate bear no relation to what is actually happening in the election campaign, tell them that they are there to set an example both to younger students and to their elders.
4. The vote
Have ballot papers printed with the parties’ names, but not the names of the students who are speaking for them. Ensure that, as far as possible, voting is secret. If you have a whole school hustings assembly, voting can take place at the end of the assembly. Enlist students to hand out ballot papers and pencils, and collect completed ballots. Have different ballot boxes for each year group, so you can track different age groups’ preferences. Allow teachers to vote too, and have a separate ballot box for them.
If it’s not feasible to conduct the vote in an assembly, it can be done in tutor time, supervised by tutors. If this isn’t possible, book a room at lunchtime and appoint students as returning officers, crossing students off on a school list as they vote. The important thing is that everyone votes on the same day.
5. The count
Take all the ballot boxes to one room. Record results by year group (with a result also for teachers). This is a nice way to mimic how constituencies work in the General Election; it is also interesting to observe how the different age groups (and the teachers) lean politically. Enlist some students to help with the counting. If they, or you, are mathematically minded, turn it into a mini-lesson on statistics.
6. The result
Announce the result as soon as you have it on whichever platform your school uses for whole school communications. Break it down by year group, but also report the whole school result. Record both total votes and percentages. Thank the students who have taken part as candidates, but announce the result by parties. Make no comment on the result; you must remain strictly impartial throughout.
In February 1974, my school recorded a thumping victory for the Conservatives, while nationally Labour won narrowly. In the last mock election run by me as a teacher, in 2019, there was a landslide for the Lib Dems; across the country, the Conservatives bagged an 80 seat majority. It’s good that young people think for themselves.
