The youngest MP:

A 22-year-old elected as an MP with a razor-thin majority has said he does not want his age to be the focus as he heads to Westminster.

Labour’s Sam Carling is likely to be the “baby of the House”…

I.e. the youngest, the Beeb helpfully explains.

However, he doesn’t want his age to be a focus. “I want us to get away from this strange mindset towards younger people’s age. As far as I’m concerned we’re just the same as anyone else. I just want to get on with the job.”

Ah well there you are then, demonstrating one of the reasons there is and must be an age threshold for people in government. The younger you are, the less experience you have, and the less time you’ve had to learn and observe and think and self-correct and all that kind of thing. You don’t even have a fully mature brain yet.

Very young people can be brilliant at campaigning (for want of a better word). The US Civil Rights movement was jam-packed with very young people, and their passion and courage were vital to its success.

But the Nazi movement was also full of very young people, as was Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Youth does not always have the answer.

He only recently became interested in politics, saying he saw a connection between social and economic decline and “decisions made in Westminster”. Mr Carling grew up in a rural town in the north-east of England, which he described as “a very deprived area”.

“I saw a lot of things getting worse around me. I was concerned about shops closing on local high streets that used to be a thriving hub and are basically now a wasteland. And the sixth form closed, but I didn’t make the connection to politics until later.”

My point exactly. Making connections is an adult skill that takes time and learning and experience to develop.