but that apathy, it was suggested by jonathan blake, it. yjonathan blake, is a p pa re ntly suggested byjonathan blake, is apparently because politicians of a certain age do not know how to talk to young people. this has always been the case, i do a lot of work with schools and debating groups and ifind with schools and debating groups and i find young people are incredibly engaged about politics. that is at school. and i cannot wait to vote. i was involved with the home office withjohn was involved with the home office with john denham was involved with the home office withjohn denham in getting out the youth vote. but in fact what happens is by the time they get to 19, 20, 25, they're so busy with their own opinions but they forget actually that you have to make that effort and get your name on a register and get down to the polling station before ten o'clock at night. and for the labour fortunes to go up and down on thursday, those young people have got to put down their game console or whatever, generalising ridiculously, but they've got

jonathan blake is bbc newsbeat‘s political editor, and joins me live from manchester.nger voters are notorious for not turning up to the polls. do you discern more enthusiasm perhaps this time around especially after the turnout during the referendum which was around 65%? yes that is right and what you have seen during this campaign is definitely perhaps more engagement than usual from younger voters in terms of the issues that have been discussed, coming so soon as did after that brexit referendum you mentioned where turnout amongst under 25 was unusually high. i think we're going to hear from the audience in manchester the right a lot of passion because we talk about young voters being apathetic a lot of the time. but having gone around the uk in this campaign talking to mainly under 25 is about how going to vote and why they are not, a lot of them care about the issues and ca re of them care about the issues and care about low wages or the chance of going to university or equal rights, but what turns them off often is the language of politics and the performances we

earlier i spoke to the bbc newsbeat‘s political editor, jonathan blake, about young people's engagementtely, perhaps, more engagement than usual from younger voters in terms of the issues that have been discussed. coming so soon as it did after that brexit referendum that you mentioned, where turnout among under 25s was unusually high. i think what you will hear from the audience here in manchester tonight is a lot of passion. we talk about young voters a lot of the time as being apathetic, i can tell you having gone around the uk in this election campaign and talking to mainly under 25s about how they will vote and why they are not, a lot of them, at least, they care about the issues. they care about low wages, they care about their chances of going to university, they care about equal rights. what turns them off so often is the language of politics, and the performance of politics that we see on the tv and hear on the radio during election campaigns. so you might hear a bit of frustration as well, i think, from the audience tonight here in manchester — at how politicians all too often

also, jonathan blake is working with bbc reality check looking at the numbers promises we will hear aboutrking out what really stacks up. and it is going through comments we have been getting all day on #bbcdebate. first, tonight, after two devastating terror attacks in two weeks, including in manchester, security has become a bigger part of the election campaign, in particular how best to protect british people from future attacks. police numbers in england and wales have fallen by almost 20,000 since 2010 and numbers have gone down in northern ireland. although in scotland they have been more 01’ although in scotland they have been more or less increasing the last 30 yea rs. more or less increasing the last 30 years. police budgets in england and wales were reduced by almost a fifth between 2010 and 2015 and since then they have been protected and counterterrorism funding has risen with inflation. since 2000 various governments have introduced nine anti—terrorist laws including the ability to stop suspects from re—entering the uk and keeping people deemed a threat under house arrest. th

certainly there were news headlines to come out of this, blake and the other thing when he was asked by jonathan carl there by abc about the tape. we've all been wondering if there's tapes of his conversations with mr. comey. we didn't exactly get an answer, but we got something of a preview; right? >> he was examined several different iterations of this, connell, do the tapes exist? and at the very beginning when the president was asked this, he said i will tell you some time in the near future, leaving open the possibility that maybe they exist. didn't answer the question if they don't. but also saying, look, at some point i'll answer the question. and he was asked it again. and then sideswiped it. but then he was kept asking about it, and he said you're going to be very disappointed when you hear the answer. insinuating there that the tapes maybe do not exist. either way, the president didn't answer one way or another one. when he might say whether or not they exist. or two, if they exist at all. just to say that i might give you the answer here soon in the near future, and you're going to be