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

[Justusethebloodyphone]

So Labour are trying to pass legislation to give 16&17 year olds the vote - I would imagine this would largely be in the hope that they are more likely to vote left.

I think they actually risk a MAGA type response where algorithms will simply target those of that age and fire them with simplistic slogans about how much better life will be and all their problems will be solved. These are as likely to come from the right.

The challenges facing young people are very real - and more than any generation in the recent past they are perhaps more likely to be swayed by their feelings about their personal future than ideals about society. At 16/17 they may not be aware of the job and economic situation now but they are likely to be targeted relentlessly. We could see a very significant silent majority.

Chatting to my own teens and their friends I can see that many of them would be very susceptible to simple promises - look how the adult world responded to the promise of extra wealth and boom time due to Brexit slogans which had no base in reality.

I’m traditionally a soft lefty but am currently in the political wilderness. Just interested in how people think this would pan out.

Let’s be honest. People working in and for Labour are not exactly the smartest brains in the country. In fact, the majority of Labour MP, and MPs in general are thick as mince.

It’s hardly surprising that Labour have come up with a policy that’ll actually reduce their vote share and give it to the loony Greens. But if you’re that stupid, you deserve it.

Or maybe they just think it's the right thing to do?

My just 18y old was eligible to vote at the recent LEs and him and all his friends either voted Green or Reform so I think youre right. They have well and truly absorbed a message of the traditional 2 party structure not working anymore and so will likely vote to "throw over the playing board" and disrupt things/send a message (and they're probably not wrong). They're pretty pissed off with Labour and student loan interest. They dont really remember the last Tory shitshow.

This isn’t a new policy idea, people have been campaigning for this for decades. The youth parliament raise it as a top issue almost every year.

There is evidence that younger people are turning to the right whereas previously the youth were generally more left wing. However I can’t see how Labour can ditch the policy now that it might not work in their favour.

Yes Student loans and the difficulty finding temporary work and feedback from older siblings about the difficulty of finding graduate jobs is the kind of thing I hear about from the sixth formers. Although there’s a loud element talking publicly about Palestine and Trans rights etc, I haven’t heard anything about that at all.

I know it’s not a new policy idea. I’ve been around the block. Just interested in how it may now pan out. If I were Reform, Green or. Conservative right now, I’d not be voting against it.

I’m against it simply because I worry about how divisive, polarising and toxic it will be for this age group, once the political machines start firing up their social media.

Yeah I agree there.

But why? Is totally illogical. The vast majority of 16/17 year olds have never had a job, never had a child, never had a mortgage or rental agreement, never paid tax and never had to truly consider how the UK and global economic circumstances impact on their lives as they have no responsibilities. It is utterly ridiculous and entirely a political move because they think it will win them more votes.

If anything, we should be going the other way and only allowing people who contribute through personal taxes to have a say on how our government manages the economy as it our money they're spending. I would increase the voting age to 25 or 21 as an absolute minimum.

It’s because they think that they’ll vote for who their parents vote for so will get them votes. It’s utterly ridiculous

I’m honestly think they’ve missed the boat of being able to think of this as a vote winner

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.

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.

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I think it will be nothing like that unfortunately. In a world of TikTok and IG I think it will be toxic slogans and reels and breed divisiveness.

I would love to be proved wrong though.

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.

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.

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.

@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.

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! 🤣

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.

Whoops.

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

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

You need to mix with better people

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.