News Nuggets | Elections & Crime

KentOnline / KMTV

15/04/2025

Join Abby to find out more about elections and voting...

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Abbey and welcome to News Nuggets. This week we'll be looking into something

00:25that can change what you learn at school, the ways we can stay healthy or how we fight

00:30climate change across the UK and that is the general election. Voting means that we get

00:36a say in how the country decides things so let's run through how it all works. Your local

00:42council is in charge of really important public services like social care, education, housing

00:48and collecting your bins but the central government gives them the money to pay for these things.

00:53They also make really important decisions about how everyone in the UK learns in school,

00:58about immigration, the NHS, the economy, crime, the environment, there's a lot to think about.

01:04For example if the central government votes to make wearing pink socks a law then we need

01:09to do it but if we think this is unfair it's our right to peacefully protest to get them

01:15to undo what they've done. There are groups called parties, not the kind you're invited

01:20to but like the Conservatives, Labour, Green, Liberal Democrats and many more. They all have

01:25different ideas of what's important and ahead of an election in their groups they will publish

01:30a long list of things they want to do if they were elected to be the main party in our government.

01:36For example let's review the policies for schools during the 2024 general election.

01:41The Conservatives wanted to make spaces for people with special educational needs and disabilities, SEND.

01:48Labour wanted to recruit more teachers. The Liberal Democrats wanted to have a mental health professional

01:54in every school. Then the Green Party wanted to offer free breakfast clubs. Democracy means that every

02:00five years we look at what parties want to do and if we agree we get a say by voting on election day at

02:06our local ballot station. Now that we know more let's meet this episode's News Nuggets who made a special

02:12visit here at the KMTV studio to see how a local TV station covers the general election.

02:24Hi! My name is Annie. My name is Freya and we're at the KMTV studio to interview Abby and to talk about

02:32journalism and journalism and the general election. Let's go!

02:41Three, two, one, six, but that's it for us. Bye-bye.

02:45I'm Daniel, please.

02:56Hello, how are you? Ready?

02:59New, two, three, four, five, and then we'll do this.

03:08So what have you been up to?

03:09I've been presenting for about 12 hours live. We went live at 10 p.m.

03:14That's when the polls close. Were you putting your votes?

03:17So Abby, how does our one vote make a difference?

03:20Well, it's very important that you do vote because if everybody said their vote didn't make a difference,

03:25there would be no voting. There'd be no results. Every vote counts and it's very important.

03:30So when you're 18 and you vote, you choose a member of parliament or MP that represents your

03:35local area and central government. They all meet in London to debate the issues that are affecting

03:40you the most. So when each part of the country works out who got the most votes, the main government

03:46is then decided. For example, if you vote for Labour and they win as MP in your local area,

03:51then lots of other people across the country vote for Labour too and they win. They get seats.

03:56If they have the most seats, they're in charge. And that's what's happened in this general election.

04:02Here in Kent, they won a lot of seats. So before this, we had two Labour MPs. Now we have 11.

04:09I hope that they do good to Kent, if you know what I mean. They don't just do it for the power.

04:16What do you think are some of the promises you would want to hear from your local MP?

04:20Starting first around our school, some people just smoke around them. There's one main hospital

04:27in our area. It takes so long to wait and there's some people that need that healthcare,

04:34but they can't. I know the NHS are trying hard, but we need more hospitals.

04:40Those were some really important issues to highlight. And because you aren't quite old

04:49enough to vote just yet, we thought we'd hold our very own election at Eni and Freya's school

04:55to decide what topic we'll cover in the last part of this episode.

04:59Hi! We're going to join some groups and debate and crush Eni's team.

05:08Yeah, right. My team's going to win.

05:11All right, girls. All right, girls. Calm down. Well, the winning topic

05:13that you'll be debating will decide what we look at later in the episode.

05:20Gonna crush Freya's team.

05:23I'm going to go over to all the groups now and see what ideas they've got,

05:26see what arguments they've got developing. So you've got to try and convince all of your

05:31classmates that your topic's the best. For certain people with like medical issues,

05:38they can use their phones to track like sugar levels. You walk home on your own,

05:42you have like phones to like text your parents when you get to your house or when you're leaving school.

05:48We think that a 16-year-old's perspective would be very different. So I think having a 16-year-old's

05:58one would make England a very better place. But how do you know that 16-year-olds are educated

06:04enough to know a lot about politics? I think that England will come together and teach 16-year-olds

06:12how to vote. School uniform can prevent us from bullying. Two, increase safety. And number three,

06:21get the school of promotion. You might be able to tell that school uniform's cheap and expensive.

06:27We were thinking of setting up a programme where children, once they've finished school,

06:32they can take their old clothes and donate it to charities.

06:39It creates a cycle on climate change and stuff like that and it really impacts on climate change.

06:44What about the people with allergies or intolerances? You can maybe use the plant-based meat

06:50that tastes like the exact same and have the same vitamins and everything.

06:54Now it's time for you to decide. And to make it fair, you can't vote for your own topic and your own team.

07:02I've got Swingate Primaries ballot box. Do you want to put them all in?

07:05That's what democracy is about. This is what all your parents would have just done.

07:09Gone to the polling station.

07:14The votes are in.

07:15OK, we're going to find out who won, who got the most votes. In second place,

07:26should 16 year olds get the votes? So that means 10 votes to should we have mobile phones in schools.

07:34So there you have it. The students have spoken. And we started by talking to Kemp Police.

07:51The reason why we're here today is to talk about phones, mobile phone safety, if they should be banned at school.

07:57What do you think, Laura?

07:58You can contact your adults on your phone and you can contact the emergency services.

08:02But I don't think we need phones in classrooms.

08:04Have you ever been in a situation where a child is walking home and they've got their phones stolen?

08:09So yeah, it does happen occasionally. People do get things stolen from them.

08:12I would always say to keep your phone away unless you actually need it when you're walking to and from school.

08:17Government figures suggest there were 78,000 thefts in a year, including things like wallets, phones and bags.

08:25The figure for the previous year was 31,000. So it's more than doubled.

08:30So how are the police trying to stop phone thefts?

08:33Street wardens. So they're like extra people in our community that come and do that job for the holidays.

08:38We always get a big increase in antisocial behaviour over any of the school holidays, really.

08:43What is antisocial behaviour? Well, it's a crime that includes things like going to a place without

08:48permission or trespassing, anything that disturbs our community, not picking up dog poo,

08:54littering and being really loud. So what are some of the crimes that can affect children?

09:00So one of our biggest ones at the moment is online bullying. Cyberbullying is a criminal offence,

09:05so it's something that you can be arrested for. So once you reach the age of 10 in our country,

09:08you're criminally responsible for your actions. So that means that the police can come and deal with

09:12you if you are going to break the law. We then met Aravinda from the Centre of Child Protection to talk

09:18about keeping safe while walking home and the dangers of phones. In your job, what are some of

09:24the dangers you've seen? Let me start with people. They, you know, start with like being friends,

09:30saying nice things about us. With their view to kind of harm somebody, particularly harm a child,

09:37is called grooming. The NSPCC said almost 34,000 online grooming crimes against children were recorded

09:45by UK police in six years. For five years, one in four were against primary school children.

09:51So how can we stay safe? I mean, things that we need to be careful particularly about is like,

09:56if somebody asks you, well, let's go private. You should never go on those chat rooms.

10:01So some children might start messaging these people back because they feel lonely. What would you say to

10:07them? Use platforms that are safe. Follow the guidelines and rules. Ask, you know, ask your

10:15parents to put those parental controls. Be like kind of thinking about who are the people I can talk to

10:21if I come to harm, you know, somebody in the family. Childline could be a good place, you know,

10:26who can guide you in the right direction. Yeah.

10:29Childline was set up to give you free advice. Call their number 0800 1111 or go to their website if

10:42you ever need help. Now let's look at some of the other news stories in Kent.

10:50The new Cosington Park Leisure Centre that opened in Gillingham has been called too expensive by the

10:56community. It was built because the old building wasn't safe. When it first opened, when they first

11:01redeveloped it, we thought it was going to be for the community. I don't know many people who have been

11:05there. Nearly 27,000 people are waiting to be diagnosed with ADHD and autism in Kent and Medway.

11:1213,000, so almost half, are children and it could take seven years. But there are plans to support

11:20students in primary schools to give them the tools they need and help growing up. And finally,

11:25there's some good news for hedgehogs as there's a new plan to protect them. Their numbers have more

11:30than halved in rural areas, so everyone is looking forward to keeping them safe.

11:36Now let's start our quiz to test what you've learned today. Pause to read the questions about

11:41the election and politics. Now pause to read the questions about phones and safety.

11:49Well, that's it for this week. See you next time for another Bite-sized Bulletin.

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