On 2 October, UNA Youth member Kate Jamieson won a Twitter competition to meet the Foreign Secretary. Here she tells us how she got on.
This week I was lucky enough to be granted an audience with the UK Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon William Hague MP. This came about after an announcement was made celebrating the Foreign Secretary’s 100,000th Twitter follower, offering the chance for a lucky few to meet with the Foreign Secretary to discuss foreign policy.
In order to win this prize, we were asked to submit what we thought the UK's foreign policy priorities should be for the coming year, using the hashtag #meetFS. My own suggestion was the rebuilding of Somalia’s infrastructure, in order to help get the country back on its feet after years of entrenched problems. I also brought up the subject of the UK’s ongoing vital role at the United Nations. Of course as a member of UNA-UK, and knowing that the Foreign Secretary was previously a member, I felt this was an important subject to mention.
At the meeting, the Foreign Secretary agreed that the UK does have a responsibility to to play a prominent role in UN proceedings, in New York and elsewhere. Mr Hague highlighted the UK's interest in a number of key issues, including Somalia, as well as the Prime Minister's own involvement as co-chair of the panel exploring the post-Millennium Development Goals framework. Other topics discussed at the meeting were the balance of global power in the Pacific, the EU and teaching young people about green issues.
Given the origins of this unique opportunity, we also discussed the emerging role of social media, and Twitter in particular, as an important communications tool. Not only is it useful for followers to keep up to date with the latest developments, such as at the Foreign Office, but also as a way for us to give the politicians themselves an insight into our own views on today's pressing issues.
