A DOZEN young people from Helensburgh and Lomond got right to the heart of Scottish politics during a visit to the Festival of Politics in Edinburgh.

The members of Helensburgh Youth Forum, who are also part of the GIVE youth volunteer programme, got the chance to feel like an MSP when they sat in the debating chamber of the Parliament during a debate on young people’s mental health.

They also met the actor Greg McHugh, who plays Gary: Tank Commander in the hugely popular comedy, as he took part in the debate on mental health and spoke about his own mental health in the hope of encouraging people to be more open about the issue.

The group also joined events on social media and LBGTI issues asking questions of the panellists and giving their views.

Among the group

Gillian Simpson from Argyll and Bute TSI, which runs GIVE in partnership with the council’s youth services team, accompanied the young people on the trip.

She said: “It was a fantastic experience for the young people to actually sit right in the debating chamber of the Parliament. And they got the opportunity to listen to, debate with and ask questions of some really knowledgeable and interesting people.

“They are a really thoughtful and engaged bunch of young people so I hope this experience will inspire them to  keep being active citizens in their school and beyond.

“Who knows - maybe we have a future First Minister among them.”

Rosie Sumsion, who was part of the group who visited Holyrood, said: “I found it interesting to hear about the progress in mental health issues and that people are trying to change things.

“Sitting in the debating chamber made you feel like you were really there for a reason.”

Alex Bates added: “It was enlightening. I really enjoyed the LGBT event because I am not in that group and you got to hear from people who know what it’s like and I wanted to hear what they had to say.”

Lauren MacFarlane said: “It was inspiring because it made me think about the issues more than I would normally.”

And a fourth member of the GIVE group, Ryan Thomson, added: “I liked hearing points of view from people who are experts or have experience in the point of the matter.”

This is the second time young people from the GIVE programme has gone to Parliament - earlier this year MSP Jackie Baillie lodged a motion for the Parliament to recognised its success.

The motion said it “considers the success of the programme can be measured by the excellent testimonies from the young people who took part”, wished the GIVE programme every success and expressed the hope that it would continue to inspire young people to volunteer.