to be concerned about 16- and 17- year-olds being able to vote in the Scottish Independence referendum?

[Foibles]

My son (17) has just brought home a school magazine written by his fellow sixth formers. It has Alex Salmond on the front page, his arm round the magazine's 'politics writer', a boy who is a fervent supporter of Scottish Independence, and who has written the leading article. A lot of space is devoted to the arguments in favour of Scottish Independence, which are very enthusiastically put, but lip-service is also paid to the Unionist side.

The front page article about independence continues inside the mag, where there is also an interview with Alex Salmond. In another piece a teacher gives his own pro-Independence views.

These young people are living in interesting times, and it is important that they engage fully with this debate.

AIBU to be concerned that these people are not getting the full picture?

Are you talking about council or parilament elections Solo? Council elections you might struggle to get manifestos, but parli ones shouldn't be impossible to find.

Council. Why don't they post manifestos for Council elections?

Every council group will have its own manifesto. So 32 different ones across Scotland. That's why it's more difficult to find. Generally they will exist though and if you contacted one of the candidates directly you would possibly be able to get a copy, depending on the party and whether the council candidates are working together or doing their own thing.

I can't imagine many 16/17-year-olds (or anyone else) going to the trouble of doing that, and yet in some ways the local council elections affect us even more than the national ones.

But for any of us to know how to vote in the referendum we need clear information,not just about its implications for us, but for the rest of the UK too.

If you're going to argue that understanding the issues & holding an independent opinion on them are prerequisites for taking part in democracy, you'd also have to exclude an awful lot of >18s.

Agree that this is a longstanding SNP policy, so fair enough. Personally, I'd like to see it extended to all elections, to increase engagement amongst 16/17 year olds.

Unfortunately there's no unbiased group that will provide that information so everyone's just going to have to sift through the info provided by both sides and come to their own conclusions.

No, I never said that - we all have the right to take part in democracy, whatever our understanding of the issues.

But it does help if we understand what we're voting for. However, since any party is free to break its promises once it is elected (bitter - moi?), our so-called democracy doesn't seem to be worth much.

Btw, JollyJack, thanks for the links posted upstream to the two campaigns.

Glad I could help :)