To think Labour increasing the vote to 16 & 17 year olds is not the win they think it is?

They’ll all vote for the Green Party - they’ve not thought this through at all.

I don't see that this is meant as a vote winner for any particular political party. It's just the right thing to do. If older people with dementia are allowed to vote (and they are), and if adults with learning difficulties are allowed to vote (they are) then so should 16 and 17 year olds. They're old enough to hold down a job, pay taxes and join the military, albeit in non combat roles. So they should be part of the process. It's a simple matter of implementing the good old British value of fairness.

I might be horribly naive but I think you are wrong. I have a 16 year old, him and his friends aren’t into social media, don’t have TikTok or similar. They are very good an assessing what they see online and considering if it is a decent source. We talk about it regularly and it’s often discussed at school. This generation is far more social media/online influence savvy than the previous one. No idea how he would vote if he was eligible but social media wouldn’t be the main influence helping them decide.

I like to believe that labour want this because they believe it is the right thing to do and also because teens in other parts of the uk can vote from 16 so English teen should be able to as well.

It's been 16+ in Scotland (for Scottish Parliamentary and local elections) since 2016, following on from 16 and 17 year olds being specifically enabled to vote in the 2014 Independence Referendum. (Labour and the SNP also proposed a parallel change in the UK Parliament for the 2016 EU Referendum, but the Conservatives blocked it.) It was actually the Liberal Democrats who proposed the permanent change in the Scottish Parliament, although it had cross-party support.

According to researchers looking back on 10+ years of this policy this year, 16+ rather than 18+ hasn't disproportionately benefited any specific party or position. The main observed/confirmed difference has been increased % of newly eligible voters (1) registering and (2) voting - in other words, it appears that 16yos are more likely than 18yos to register, vote, and keep on voting. There have been some recommendations for the rest of the UK which tend to say that lowering the age to 16 is a net positive but would be more effective if combined with other educational and engagement programs for young voters (and voters in general).

As pp have said, it isn’t Labour it will benefit but I doubt they had a clue that would be the case when they decided this.

I think it could be a good thing as we need more balance with an ageing population.

Which way will the youth vote? No idea

Politics is divisive, polarising and toxic for lots of age groups.

I’m happy to let as many people who are going to be affected by the decisions made by an incoming party as possible have the vote.

We take the opinions of people who have absolutely no knowledge of politics into account when holding an election, being 40
doesn’t necessarily make you better qualified to have a say than being 16.

You need to mix with better people

I would rather young people had a vote in their future than leaving it to miserable racist old people who want to ruin this country

Whoops.

Labour are probably making the same own goal error with the 16 year old vote.

Things the MPs are voting for in parliament will impact 16-17 year olds more over their lifetime than it will anyone 80+. That's all. Moreover, older people tend to (in general) be more against change (but still expecting different outcome 🤦‍♀️). I just wish that there was a system where people were thinking about more than about there own backyard. I know, it's an utopia.

The government might want to learn a lesson from Labour in Wales.

They attempted to gerrymander the election by changing the voting system to keep them on power indefinitely.

Unfortunately for them, they didn't foresee the possibility that support for Labour would collapse so dramatically, resulting in the new system favouring Plaid Cymru and Reform.

Labour is now the third party in Wales with only 9 seats out of 96.

Analysis of the results showed Labour and the Conservatives would have done a lot better and Plaid Cymru and Reform would have done worse under the old system.

Oh, my sides! 🤣

@neveragainforreal if older people, let's say 80+ as a steer, are allowed to vote on things that won't impact them at all, I can't see why 16-17 year olds, shouldn't be able to vote

I don’t understand this logic. Everyone who votes does so for things that will and will not directly affect them - we don’t vote issue by issue.

I don't think this is a winning move but I'm not against this at all.

Posts in this thread so far, seem to assume that people of current voting age, are all basing their votes on well-informed and rational decisions 🤣

Furthermore, if older people, let's say 80+ as a steer, are allowed to vote on things that won't impact them at all, I can't see why 16-17 year olds, shouldn't be able to vote. They can't be less informed than the masses today. That must be mathematically impossible.

This is one of those things that must have seemed like a good idea when they were celebrating their general election victory and they were looking for a way to lock the Tories out.

Now even they must realise that this is yet another, gun meet foot, situation of their own making.

This has been the case in Scottish Parliament elections for years now. It hasn't broken the country, so I'm fairly sure the UK is safe.

I'm in favour of it in principle, but I think it would be beneficial if schools did a one-off lesson on politics in the run up to an election. Discuss how to decide which party to vote for, where to get real information, be wary of SM etc.

I think it's beneficial for people to be exposed to politics whilst they are still at school and can be told it's a good idea to vote. In theory it could lead to greater voter turnout in the future.

Deleted as posted twice

My only hope is that it means that young people are educated better about what they are voting for. As they will still be at college. We had a really good teacher who was into teaching us all this stuff and got all yhe candidates in to be scrutinised by us. Was great.
For example we learnt the difference between what local councilors influence compared to MPs. And how to work out the basic values between the main parties.

It’s a ludicrous decision, and given polls seems to indicate that most of the kids are tending right rather than left these days (which is unprecedented) this cynical move looks likely to backfire.