to think that lowering the voting age to 16 is a stupid idea?

[CrystalTipsandAlista1r]

in fact, I'd rather it was raised to 25.

No votes for the young, no votes for people with limited intelligence (what if they have special needs?) Preferably no votes for DM readers.... hardly democratic is it? Parliament is supposed to represent the British public in all its diversity.

What's next - no votes for women??

There needs to be a line, some 14 year olds may be more politically active than some people of any other age.but most will not be. I would suggest that 18 is a good agree to draw that line for most things once you have finished compulsory fill time education and are legally an adult.

And voting Brexit was hardly portrayed as a great thing to do in much of the MSM

Yeah, right - so the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph, the Express etc didn’t campaign at all for Brexit?

Well it was though, wasn't it? Did you not see ANY of the headlines on right-wing papers? None of the scaremongering stories of what would happen if we remain?

And that is essentially my point - why is it perfectly okay for an ignorant older person to vote with nothing more than the information provided by someone like Murdoch but we will penalise youths who are effected by the policies in place?

You'd either need to blanket ban anyone who could be considered ignorant/immature/not of sound mind (but obviously that would be a dangerous precedent to set) or you look to creating better education around politics and offer the vote to all individuals who are able to pay tax.

spikey the memiest (new word?) people I know are in their 40s. I know a lot of people in their 20s, and I'm in my 40s myself and rarely repost a meme, but the biggest users of memes I know are two women in their 40s. Both the kind of people who share a meme without first engaging brain...

I suspect that the only relevance age has is when it means that the group are less likely to be familiar with technology and social media...

Pfffft. So the youth vote wasn't what it was cracked up to be for jezza. So he thinks he'll cast the net a little younger and scoop around for a few more minnows.

18 is fine. It's the age when you are an adult, so any older is unfair. But 16 is too young IMO.

'Well considering there was a report this week saying that whilst the 'yuff' are more left leaning, they failed to turn out at the GE to vote'

According to YouGov the youth vote was up 16% at the 2017 General Election from the 2015 General Election.

16 for referendums but not for general or council elections. Basically by upping school leaving age and when you can buy fags childhood now ends at 18.

I also think that if a party you don't agree with will get into power if more youths vote, then that is a good thing. As it will cause a knock on effect to all parties to start considering all of their voters in their policies and not just their core supporter.

"There needs to be a line, some 14 year olds may be more politically active than some people of any other age.but most will not be. I would suggest that 18 is a good agree to draw that line for most things once you have finished compulsory fill time education and are legally an adult."

Agree with this. Fortunately there are "stupid people" of every voting persuasion so they (hopefully) cancel each other out.

I have heard many brilliantly stupid reasons for voting a certain way from all sorts of people for all of the different parties as well as for/against Brexit.

When you think what 16 year olds can't currently do it seems quite ridiculous that some are arguing for them to be given the vote (smoking or drinking. Can't get married without parents permission. Can't join the army without parental consent - and if you do you won't be sent to the front line. It's even increasingly difficult to leave full time education or training and just enter the workforce).

I totally support 16 year olds being allowed to vote. Age, once you reach a certain point, is a poor indicator of maturity. I know 16 year olds who are much more politically aware than many 30 year olds.

Should be kept at 18.

Threads like this are great. It’s always the same thinly veiled message that unless ‘they’ are likely to agree with your political ideals then ‘they’ shouldn’t be allowed to vote. Young, old, unemployed, imprisoned, uneducated...

You need to pass a theory test before you can get your driving licence. Foreign nationals have to pass a citizen test before they get nationality.
How about we introduce a theory test for voting? Then it's nothing to do with age but will be about understanding the system.

How about we introduce a theory test for voting? Then it's nothing to do with age but will be about understanding the system.

Sounds fine in theory, but all that will ultimately do is drastically reduce numbers of voters. Anyone who is already a little apathetic about the system wouldn't go out of their way to go a voluntary exam (and I'm not convinced it's something that should be compulsory either).

Then we end up in a situation where even fewer are making decisions for us all.

@WonderLime
I'm not saying there was no campaigning for Brexit, just that general consensus seemed to lean more towards it being "bad" than "good". Perhaps that's just the circles that I move in though. I don't tend to read the DM myself and I have a lot of friends (RL and Facebook) that are more likely to read The Guardian than anything else so most of my feed, what I saw and read spontaneously without looking for it myself was geared towards remain.

That being said I read perhaps hundreds of articles from a huge variety of sources and decided to vote Brexit and I would do the same thing again.

There were, in my opinion, as many ridiculous claims on both sides of the debate. Brexit leading to WW3?!

I work near a secondary school. Once out of the school gates most of the lads are too busy engaging in 'fat scraps'. So I would question if they are responsible enough at 15/16 to vote on matters of tolerance, equality, rights, freedom of speech etc.

I could give other examples but you get my drift.

I think by 18 most have matured and have entered the world of work were there rules have to be followed etc, because you don't lose your job/income not just get a detention.

I think it is pretty unreasonable to suggest that over 65s shouldn't have the vote too.

When people say 16 year olds can be in full time work, married, have kids, pay tax etc etc really that is extremely rare these days. They will almost all be living at home in some kind of education. I do think 16 seems young and don’t have a problem with the voting age being 18. Most of what they are voting to change won’t affect them. Although I guess most people are split between voting on pure idealism and voting with more self interest based on your own circumstances, I’d assume 16 year olds would be pure idealism.

6because 16 year olds, in general, haven't got the awareness of the world to make that kind of decision That's a sweeping generalisation. How about people over 70 or 80 they don't necessarily have the required awareness either.

Most of what they are voting to change won’t affect them.

Nonsense. And exactly the reason why 16 and 17 year olds could vote in the Scottish Independence Referendum.

"They're not able to grasp politics" - same argument used against giving women the vote.

Old enough to pay taxes, old enough to have a say in how they are spent.
So what if they don't vote in a way you approve of OP? Sorry, but that's democracy.

"It needs rebuilding after they've financially and morally fucked it."

Financially - has been REPEATEDLY proven to be false

Morally - are you KIDDING? Tory are all silver spoon "I'm alright Jack and fuck everyone else"!

Spikyjelly - yea cos over 18's aren't easily misled at all 🤔 "£350million for the nhs" Anyone?

"No. Older people generally don't do memes. That was my point. And voting Brexit was hardly portrayed as a great thing to do in much of the MSM" it's not just memes that are misleading "fake news" plenty of that in msm and yes most of the msm WAS pro brexit.

I agree as soon as someone is eligible to pay income tax they should be able to get on the electoral roll.

Agree wonderlime - it challenges the apathy of older potential voters too. Making THEM more likely to vote too (personally I'd make voting compulsory even if that means spoiled ballots)

Technically the brain isn't fully developed until around age 25! However I would disagree with changing the voting age to reflect that.

As for "testing" people before allowing them to vote; as I've said you just have to hope that there are an equal number on all sides of the debate voting for the "wrong" reasons to cancel each other out.

I think in many cases less academic people will still have legitimate concerns and a good understanding of what they want from the government but might not have the required knowledge to pass a test on it!

It would really be the equivalent of stopping votes for the working class. These people still deserve a say in how the country is run.