At 22, my vote in this Scottish election is barely my second. This June, I’ll graduate into what feels like a barren job market and an unsteady political future, and I’m far from the only one – the John Smith Centre’s recent youth poll found the cost of living, entry-level job prospects, and the housing market dominate young people’s political worries.

I’ve followed the campaign trail closely, comparing manifestos and speeches. I attended the Centre's Scottish Hustings for Young People in St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh last week, with all-young candidates from the six main parties.

The next day, I watched the BBC’s Debate Night Young Voters' Special on TV. The day after that, I sat in at The Herald and Women in Public Affairs’ Holyrood Hustings in the paper's Glasgow's HQ with its all-female panel. Across the three events, I watched 15 candidates represent their six parties, and the promises they make to secure young people’s futures. Despite cross-party consensus for investment in many issues, focus and credibility were varied, and audiences’ reception mixed.

Each party’s manifesto promises significant investment into affordable and social housing. St Giles’ saw Maryhill and North Kelvin’s Liberal Democrat candidate, Daniel Khan-O’Malley, stick out as a surprising audience favourite; alongside cross-party pledges of new homes in the 10,000s, the Lib Dems’ promises of homes intended to introduce key workers to areas requiring them seems to kill two birds with one stone.

Reform UK’s Jamie McGuire, standing in Renfrewshire West and debating on both the Centre’s and the BBC’s panels, vowed to enrich urban areas by rebuilding previously developed sites, by removing the "refugees” his party claims overrun cities like Glasgow, and removing “red tape” and Net Zero regulations restricting construction.

Khan-O'Malley gained applause by attacking Reform’s........

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