i Editor's Letter: Buzzing from first iStudents debate

Apologies to the inhabitants of Carriage E. I’m writing this on the 9.25pm from Cardiff Central surrounded by 16 rowdy i journalists, all buzzing from last night’s iStudents debate in Cardiff, our first of its kind.

A heated discussion spilled over at times into sharp words and unwanted revelation – a fellow editor spoke of his thwarted plans to enter the adult film industry, a disclosure too far, surely.

A short report can be found in today's i. Take note Messrs Cameron, Clegg, Miliband, Farage: the vast majority of the students said that they intend to vote in May 2015, but many of them are undecided where their pencil will fall.

Interestingly, the audience swung against the motion, “A generation of young people will never vote Conservative or Lib Dem because of this Government”, inflicting a heavy defeat.

Meeting i readers is a joy. Jennifer Ubah, 19, and her housemate Robert Hindle, 20, want us to make the debates bigger and invite questions in advance next time. Thanks to them, we’ll do both at our next iStudents debate, which will be in the north of England.

We’re cooking up ideas for how we’ll approach next May’s general election. If you would like to suggest anything, please write to me, our Deputy Editor Rhodri and Features Editor Rebecca Armstrong on i@independent.co.uk.

I also met my first i reader from Somaliland, Cabdi Jaamal, who now lives in Bristol and works for NHS housekeeping.

Thanks to Hannah Nicholls, Julia Gosling and Lauren Harvey at i for organising the night and to the National Museum Cardiff for hosting us.

Twitter.com: @olyduff