16 & 17 year olds to be given the vote

[Whereishenow]

Just seen this announcement on BBC now. Amazing news!!! Now we just need to try and get youngsters out USING those votes.

My first vote was for Tony Blair.. Things Can Only Get Better, and all that. In the good old days when we still had faith in Labour. Oh well look at the state of them now. An Embarrassment of MPs.

What is it with Labour and legislating on major issues which were not part of their manifesto?

The irony of posters on here arguing young people shouldn't vote because they aren't engaged in politics & lack the brain power!

Indeed, that is the issue with manifestos. They aren't worth the paper they are written on because the PM is under no legal obligation to fulfil them. He may as well have promise a wheel of cheese to every household, he'd have had the same intentions of delivering that, which is zero.

nothing can be more embarrassing than the tories last stretch. God people have short memories. Maybe another way to test when the voting age cut off should be 🤔

Awww then why are you making such a fuss about Labours manifesto? Backed yourself into a corner?

I’m not sure welfare cuts were in the manifesto

I agree completely.
This was in the manifesto!
And for those people saying they have no progress on other manifesto commitments that just isn't true
https://www.hftf.org.uk/labour-pledge-tracker

But this one is because the government is enacting a manifesto pledge by extending the voting franchise. Just as it promised pre election.

If you want to criticise the government for failing to deliver on manifesto pledges, then by all means, do so. But your argument doesn't really wash on a thread that is about one manifesto pledge that is currently being implemented.

This is the government in the process of delivering on its manifesto. Some promises can be implemented relatively quickly, others might take longer. Some promises might not be kept at all, but we will be able to judge that in a few years when they're near the end of their first term. If you were expecting years of under-investment to be fixed overnight, then more fool you, frankly.

Ooo the Labour faithful are here, being .. faithful. Doing what Labour do best, criticising the tories rather than concentrating on doing better themselves. Bless 🤗

Don't put words in my mouth. I did not say they are doing things they were not elected on. I said they have not delivered on the majority of pledges they were elected on, which is a fact. I highly doubt the reason most people voted Labour was specifically to reduce the voting age.

My comments have made perfect sense, you have just rewritten what I have actually said and confused yourself.

It's more about what they have done and said they wouldn't do.

But they're only a year into what is likely to be a 4-5 year term. Surely you didn't expect them to have done everything already?

And also, you can't possibly know why other people may have voted for them or which pledges they might want prioritised.

You know how long a term is, yes?

I’d imagine they haven’t delivered on everything they said, they’ve had a year and quite a big mess to work through.

They might not deliver on some, or most, but saying now that they’ve not delivered a 4 year plan, is ridiculous.

I think they have. The first two words of your user name are very apt x

Ok fair enough. Sorry for assuming. There is just so much anti youngster sentiment on here that I thought that's what this was.

I wouldn't worry. According to posters on here the 16/17 vote will go to Corbyn/Reform/Greens 🙂

I wouldn’t worry too much, it’ll probably backfire on them anyway.

Because it is despicable to make promises you have no intentions of keeping in order to deceive people and secure their vote. How on earth is that backing myself into a corner? I'm simply pointing out the obvious, surely.

Maybe you have some questionable morals if you think this is acceptable conduct.

@GreenGully instead of doubling down & deflecting why can't you just acknowledge you made a mistake? My 3 yr old can manage that..

They can't get married.

But they can't drink or get married without mission. 16 year olds can't drive. They should make up their minds. It should all be 16, 18 or better still 21.

Indeed.

Did Labour say they’d cut the WFA for pensioners? No

Did Labour say they’d cut disability benefits? No

Did Labour say the VAT on education would pay for more teachers in state schools? Yes

Where are these new teachers? Where’s the evidence. They certainly got the vat legislation in quickly enough. Not so much the clarity on where that money has gone. Shocker.

Did Labour say they were going to tax pensions even further, through inheritance tax? No

Did Labour say they were going to talk about stopping ISA savings over 5k? No.

If my parents and siblings have stopped supporting Labour, I know they’re in trouble. Bring on the young teens voting Keir, it’s all you’ve got.

We’ll see Reform in power next. And as Trump was Bernie Sanders’ fault, Reform will be Starmers.

https://pledgeprogress.co.uk/

This site tracks the progress Labour are making. Might be useful tool to see how far they've got in a single year

Playing Devil’s advocate but if a lot of the arguments here seem to be that 16 year olds don’t work or pay tax, where do we change attitude on that?
my mother has never worked so never paid tax on a salary. She has never bothered to read a manifesto or educate herself about candidates before an election. She votes Tory because she is affluent and in her late 60s. She has voted Tory her entire life, largely because her parents did.
is she more worthy of a vote than a switched on 17 year old?