ENFIELD pupils said they had been convinced to vote after a visit from the deputy speaker of the House of Lords last week.

People who don't vote have no right to complain, Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall told an A Level History class Winchmore School in a question and answer session.

 

Many of the pupils will be eligible to vote in the next election and the Labour peer, a campaigner for the Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance, which campaigns to give children the same protection as adults against assault, encouraged them not to 'buy out of the political process'.

"It's not a big deal to walk to your local ballot box," she said.

"If you vote you have an impact".

 

Quizzed on everything from religion in parliament to whether Britain had an elective dictatorship, the Baroness said people were too negative about politics.

"There's a narrative that runs all over the place, in the press, on blogs, in the way politics is talked about, which says politicians are all the same, and nothing good comes out of government.

"Politicians are not on the whole disreputable people only interested in power," she said.

"By all means hold your views but do not buy out of the political process.

"You're wasting an opportunity to contribute as a citizen to political culture."

Baroness McIntosh, a champion of the arts, said she was pleased to visit the specialist Arts College "I'm always thrilled to come into a place where the arts are central but everything else is also doing well," she said.

It was the first time the school has hosted a visitor from the House of Lords, although Lisa Hughes, the teacher in charge, hopes to repeat the event.

The class study the development of democracy in post-war Britain. "This was an opportunity for them to find out more and get some of their questions answered," said Lisa.

"It was great," said 18-year-old Naomi Fawcett.

"It's something we wouldn't normally get to learn about in depth and from that perspective.

"Before she came in I had the opinion that the Lords was obsolete, but now I think that it has a lot more credibility".

Her classmate Stephanie Nketia, who turns 18 next week, said she had been inspired by the Baroness's comments.

"I wasn't going to vote in the election," she said.

"But now that she's come in she's influenced my decision and I will."