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Phone app aims to help young people get smart about NI politics

James Bailey is hoping the new app will get young people engaged with politics
James Bailey is hoping the new app will get young people engaged with politics James Bailey is hoping the new app will get young people engaged with politics

A NEW smartphone app has been designed with the aim of encouraging more young people to engage with politics in Northern Ireland.

Politics NI was released for download last week, after weeks in development by Co Down teenager James Bailey.

The Queen’s University computer science student created the app following the UK’s Brexit referendum, after noticing a “lack of involvement” in politics by his peers.

The 19-year-old from Bangor spent more than a month fine-tuning the app, which is now available for free download at the Apple iTunes store.

It allows users to keep track of the north's parties through profiles, manifestos, and links to the social media accounts of individual politicians.

“After the Brexit result I noticed that on social media a lot of young people were deeply engaged in discussions about the outcome of the vote,” explained James.

"Yet the number of young people who actually cast their vote was low, so there seemed to be a disproportion there. It showed that despite not getting out and voting, many young people are actually very interested in politics, so I thought a good way to get them to engage further would be a smartphone app that involves social media.”

Among the features is an evaluation tool to help users identify which of the myriad parties best represents their personal views, while James also engaged directly with party representatives himself to help develop his ideas.

“They say a week is a long time in politics, so the app is designed to keep up with the fast-moving pace of the goings-on at Stormont and in constituencies,” he added.

“It helps that more and more MLAs and councillors are recognising the importance of technology and social media, and will be able to help grow the app further.”