Young Voters Swayed Towards The Conservatives?

Columnist Charles Moore recently conducted an investigation into the young person’s vote. His findings, published by The Telegraph in ‘The young voters who will put a cross in the box marked hope' tell an interesting story. He only spoke to university students so it is likely that the results won’t apply to all young people, but what he did find is interesting...

Firstly, he found that most young people plan to vote, although many are still undecided. Secondly, he found that most young people think their vote must be about the economy, although there were differing views about the current state of the economy. Some thought it was getting better, some thought it was getting worse.

Moore discovered that university students are not as condemning of Gordon Brown as he predicted. He said: “What struck me most were the answers to questions about Gordon Brown. I had expected some hostility and some ideological support, but found neither. Some said that they thought people had been too nasty to him and that he was doing a difficult job reasonably well”. Is this an accurate view or are young people are more forgiving than older generations?

It also seems from Moore’s findings that the Conservatives are the more promising party in the minds of university students, with many enjoying the idea that Cameron will give more freedom to small groups to make their own choices. Moore writes: “Words like "modern" and "change", and the new, more female and multi-ethnic look of the party's candidates were all noticed, and registered favourably”.

Do you think the Conservatives will get the young person’s vote? If you are a university student, are you swayed towards the Tories? Why? Why not?