As war against Iraq becomes increasingly imminent, a North-East teenager tells Women Editor Christen Pears why young people should speak out against the conflict

On Saturday morning, Florrie Darling stood up in front of a crowd of 2,000 anti-war demonstrators gathered outside Newcastle's Centre for Life and made a speech against war in Iraq. It was her 17th birthday and the most nerve-wracking moment of her young life. It was also one of the most rewarding.

While most of her contemporaries are preoccupied with A-levels, what they're going to do at the weekend and members of the opposite sex, Florrie is attending political rallies and meeting MPs. Earlier this month, she led fellow Gosforth High pupils in a walkout from lessons in protest against the war.

"A lot of adults assume young people aren't interested in what's going on but there is a lot more interest than you would imagine," she says.

"War affects everyone. It doesn't matter how old you are. I'm speaking out on behalf of young people and I'm hoping to encourage them to speak out too."

When Florrie met Tony Blair at her school last year, she told him to look out because she was after his job. It wasn't entirely a joke. Wearing jeans and a T-shirt, and enormous fake flower on her wrist, she doesn't look like a budding politician but she's far more politically aware than the vast majority of adults. The Prime Minister would be wise to listen to her warning.

For as long as she can remember she's been interested in politics. "When you've got a family who talk about politics all the time you are going to get into it.

"Both my parents are really political and some of my earliest memories are of my dad taking me to anti-apartheid demonstrations. They're so vivid, I can remember being in these huge crowds, looking through people's legs."

Not surprisingly, she wants to study politics at university but for the moment, she's firmly focused on the war. For the past few months she's watched events unfold in the news with increasing horror, and in February, she joined thousands of peace marchers on the streets of London. It gave her a taste for protest.

"A lot of people don't bother doing anything because they think it won't make any difference. I'm anti-war and I wanted to do something, not just sit back at home and watch it all happen. I would have loved to go out to Iraq and be a human shield but my mum (author Julia Darling) won't let me."

It's easy to say sitting in the living room of her home in Heaton but despite her light-hearted manner, I sense she's serious. Although her plans have been vetoed, she has found a way to protest closer to home. The opportunity came through two friends, Jessie Parks and Clare Toyne, both of whom were already involved in the peace movement. It started with a walkout from schools across Newcastle earlier this month.

The protest was organised at the last minute, and the girls spent three days frantically calling friends and contacts across the city to let them know what was happening. Pupils were told to leave their schools at lunchtime and make their way to the Civic Centre in Newcastle.

"Because it was such a rush, we didn't know how it was going to turn out. At first there were just people from my school and Queen Elizabeth in Hexham, but then 200 Heaton Manor people marched round the corner. It was fantastic," says Florrie.

This led to an impromptu march to Grey's Monument, where students joined them along the route, swelling their numbers. Some made speeches, others read poems and, unlike similar demonstrations in London, there were no clashes with the police.

The protest attracted the attention of the Newcastle Anti-War Coalition, who invited the girls to a meeting the following day. They walked into the city's Quaker Meeting House, where the group had gathered, and were greeted by a round of applause. "They were really impressed with what we'd done and asked us if we wanted to be more involved with them. They want to use us because they know young people can be a lot more powerful. We're at the stage where we're making our minds up about which way we're going to vote when we're 18. If Tony Blair loses our support now, we may never vote for Labour."

Their first joint venture involved chaining themselves to the Millennium Bridge and there have been demonstrations and rallies since. Last week, Florrie met Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour MP for Islington North, to talk about the possibility of creating links between youngsters in London and the North-East. She's also hoping to give talks in school assemblies to educate pupils about the issues surrounding war.

She says: "The main problem isn't that young people aren't interested, they just don't know the facts. Most of them think Saddam was responsible for September 11 because, unless they watch the news, there's no education for them about this sort of thing. We want to change that."

But it isn't just about the war. The girls want to set up a political movement for young people.

"We're focused on the war at the moment but we want to carry on and give young people the voice they don't have before they're old enough to vote. We want to get them discussing political issues and events because there is so much ignorance out there. When they turn 18, most people will just end up voting for who their parents vote for because they haven't developed their own opinions."

That's something of which you can't accuse Florrie. She's bright, well-informed and articulate, and she isn't afraid to say what she thinks.

"I feel sorry for Tony Blair," she says. "I don't approve of what he's doing but I think he really believes in it. He's got himself into an impossible situation and it doesn't look like there's any way back now.

'I find it all really confusing. I don't understand how he can justify spending this amount of money on war when there are issues like top-up fees and the firemen. I feel very disappointed in him. Saddam needs to be brought down but bombing Iraq is never going to be justified. I think it will just encourage more war. What's it going to be like for the young people of Iraq to see all that bombing? It's just creating the al Qaida of the future."

With rounds of meetings and political rallies, not to mention a phone that never seems to stop ringing, Florrie's anti-war activities are taking up an enormous amount of her time. Homework is on the back burner and, if war is declared, she'll be walking out of school again. But far from being worried about the impact it's having on her education, she thinks she's learning more.

"I don't feel that I'm missing out at all. I think it's really important for me to do this, maybe more important than sitting in a general studies lesson where I'm not really doing much. At the moment, I'm learning all the time and I think it's also important because it shows other young people that they can have a say in what's happening. We don't just have to accept that we're going to war."

18/03/2003