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.

I think it could be a good thing as we need more balance with an ageing population.

Which way will the youth vote? No idea

As pp have said, it isn’t Labour it will benefit but I doubt they had a clue that would be the case when they decided this.

True

Bloody hell. Nice bit of ageism there. My initial point was that Labour may well be surprised how some of these 16 & 17 year olds vote. I don’t think young = left will be nearly as reliable as a generation or so ago.

It's been 16+ in Scotland (for Scottish Parliamentary and local elections) since 2016, following on from 16 and 17 year olds being specifically enabled to vote in the 2014 Independence Referendum. (Labour and the SNP also proposed a parallel change in the UK Parliament for the 2016 EU Referendum, but the Conservatives blocked it.) It was actually the Liberal Democrats who proposed the permanent change in the Scottish Parliament, although it had cross-party support.

According to researchers looking back on 10+ years of this policy this year, 16+ rather than 18+ hasn't disproportionately benefited any specific party or position. The main observed/confirmed difference has been increased % of newly eligible voters (1) registering and (2) voting - in other words, it appears that 16yos are more likely than 18yos to register, vote, and keep on voting. There have been some recommendations for the rest of the UK which tend to say that lowering the age to 16 is a net positive but would be more effective if combined with other educational and engagement programs for young voters (and voters in general).

That’s interesting, thank you

I might be horribly naive but I think you are wrong. I have a 16 year old, him and his friends aren’t into social media, don’t have TikTok or similar. They are very good an assessing what they see online and considering if it is a decent source. We talk about it regularly and it’s often discussed at school. This generation is far more social media/online influence savvy than the previous one. No idea how he would vote if he was eligible but social media wouldn’t be the main influence helping them decide.

I like to believe that labour want this because they believe it is the right thing to do and also because teens in other parts of the uk can vote from 16 so English teen should be able to as well.

I don't see that this is meant as a vote winner for any particular political party. It's just the right thing to do. If older people with dementia are allowed to vote (and they are), and if adults with learning difficulties are allowed to vote (they are) then so should 16 and 17 year olds. They're old enough to hold down a job, pay taxes and join the military, albeit in non combat roles. So they should be part of the process. It's a simple matter of implementing the good old British value of fairness.

They’ll all vote for the Green Party - they’ve not thought this through at all.