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.

It was a manifesto commitment. So not something that has been plucked from nowhere.

Actually they can't......You can't be deployed until you are 18.

I wonder if those in favour would be so pleased if they thought the children would vote Conservative or Reform?

Allowing 16-17 year olds the vote (something which has been discussed for years by many political parties) is not really in the same league as allowing an 18 year old to be in charge of a multi-million pound council budget like Reform, though is it?

The Tories certainly wouldn't allow it as hardly anyone under 45 votes for them.

So how are you going to handle people who just lack education, or have learning difficulties? Can they not vote either? Are you going to bring in an IQ test that has to be completed before anyone votes? Are only people who have achieved certain GCSE/ A Level results going to be allowed to vote?

You have not thought this through.

@goldenquestion you are misinformed. Those below 18 are never deployed to fight for their country. Does not happen

will almost all be in favour of minority parties and Reform

Any stats to back this assertion up?

They can legally have sex and bring children into the world. Voting is the least of their worries.
Does that not prove how ludicrous it is

Farage makes an interesting point. He has said that you shouldn't be able to vote unless you are old enough to stand as a candidate. Currently the candidate age limit is 18.....so do we see 16 YO's as MOP's?

They'd be deployed PDQ if we had conscription and a boots on the ground war with a neighbouring country.

This made me smile. Can only imagine the anxiety ridden, triggered hoards of 16 year olds rocking up to the polling station unable to make eye contact or vote without mommy helping them 😂

I think most of the polling suggests it wouldn't. I'm still angry TBH about that and it's one reason I think changing the age is worth doing, too much of our politics is weighted towards the preferences and priorities of older generations

Nice. Lots of pensioners with mobility issues and people with physical disabilities vote. There is such a thing as a postal vote also.

Tbf we really need to do something to counter the votes of older people who can't even tell when an image is AI generated and take the word of GB News as gospel.

At 16/17 their life experiences are few and their minds still full of the poison spoon fed to them by Leftwing educators.

This.

Ah well, consider me corrected then! I still consider it the right decision, I hear far more sense and informed conversation from 16 and 17 year olds than from some of the older people I come into contact with. Assuming someone over 18 has more intelligence than someone under 18 purely because of their age is pretty daft in my opinion.

Left wing, I wish. They haven't been left wing since Gove started meddling with the education system.

In the same way older generations are being spoon fed far right poison by Farage?

And at 60+ their minds are often poisoned by their assertion that they're owed the world as a thanks for being a member of society for so long. And their ideals are often rooted in a past that no longer reflects the current climate.

The changes made by politicians have huge effect on younger people now starting out in life, they should be a part of shaping it.

Absolutely this - my secondary school ran a poll for the last GE. Students watched videos of each MP and had open discussions every tutor time for a 2 weeks leading up to the GE. The SM influence completely took over from the objective PowerPoints the school provided. There were cheers and clapping for Nigel Farage & Reform. We have 1500 pupils and Reform won with 37% of the votes.

Because the right wing never gerrymander of course.....the recent constituency boundary changes which were done based on the electoral roll for the first time, instead of population, thus affecting representation for inner city, poorer communities (who are less likely to be on the electoral roll, but if they are registered are more likely to vote for left wing parties) more than the right leaning leafy suburbs (where voter registration is higher) were not at all an attempt to gerrymander the vote in favour of the Tories (not that it did them any good).

Why would 16 year olds be more likely to vote Labour anyway? If the argument is that they are easily manipulated, it's a daft one because they can be just as easily manipulated by the right wing - who have much more expertise and coverage in that particular area, both in terms of media and social media coverage and form for offering up populist policies which do more harm than good.

If the 'fear' is that Labour will manipulate them by offering up policies which actually mean something to them - well then tough luck to the right, because it is about time someone did!

Maybe politicians will actually start looking to make things better for the younger generation instead of pandering to the older generation who benefitted enormously in their youth, but then pulled up the ladder behind them and are now sat on most of the nations wealth like Smaug on his pile of gold while going scorched earth on anyone who tries to make things fairer!

And yet most people on MN are of the opinion that 16/17 and even 18 year olds should not be left alone overnight because they might not be able to lock the door or turn electricals off or dial 999 when the inevitable house fire/other emergency occurs but choose who runs the country- crack on

I agree with this.

My 17yo is more politically aware, open minded, interested and wise than all four of my parents / step parents put together (aged 78-83) who are entrenched in their views, totally out of touch and prejudiced.

In addition young people are voting for their own futures and will be impacted by almost every political issue going at some point in their lives. My parents will only see 5-10 years more of life and are mainly interested in pensions, and punishing anyone who has the audacity to be poor (which they see as a symptom of laziness).

I think including young people in the vote is brilliant. I do though, hope that some emphasis is placed on learning about politics and relevant issues as part of the curriculum instead maybe of RE or something less relevant.

As the parent of DC aged 16 and 18, I think this is a TERRIBLE idea and the only political beneficiaries will be extreme parties like Reform.

At 16, young people are still very impressionable and not fully capable of judging the reliability of sources. This will particularly be an issue for boys, who are already targeted by Andrew Tate and his ilk.

I love my 16 year old DS dearly, but would not trust him to make a fully informed decision on how to vote on major issues that will impact the whole country.