Voting age may be reduced to 16 apparently. Good idea?

[Nanny0gg]

As it says in the title. Labour still seems keen on this idea. Personally I think it's bonkers - I look at my DGC and they are just not old enough yet.

AIBU?

16 year olds can't get married in England and Wales. Why do people not know this?

If even adults can't grasp basic law, I worry for the kids!

I think it’s a really good idea. I would welcome this.

My eldest has not long turned 18. He’s already voted twice. He spent a bit of time beforehand finding out what the elections were for, who was standing in our area and what their manifestos were. We’re in Wales.

This^
A few years ago I was a bit against it but now when DD is older I think we can trust them more. It’s our parental duty to engage them and encourage them and what if they have different opinions? where is the proof that older always means clever?
They can get married, have sex, get a job, live independently , join political party at 16 . They should have chance to choose their country’s future

@lavendermouse "I work with yr11. Some of them can't even tell the time on an analogue clock."

Not sure that should be a requirement. You don't have to be able to read to vote!

Many 16 year olds pay tax. They should have a say in how theyre spent

It’s a shame voting age wasn’t 16 in 2016. I don’t feel particularly strongly either way but I do approve of getting young people into the habit of voting as early as possible.

Sadly that logic doesn't hold - you pay tax from birth if you earn enough.

Another example of Labour's ludicrous ideas.

The UK isn't just England and Wales, in Scotland people at 16 can get married here.

Go on. Humour us @BotterMon, with your reason for that assertion.

If 16 year olds can have children then they can vote. I think it’s good, we need to encourage young people to engage with politics.

You know not all 16 & 17 YOs are the same don’t you? Mine were a lot more intelligent and had a lot more common sense than many people 20 or 30 years their senior.

Definitely not,the SNP done it ,to try and push through independence and now they've had to come with all manner of bribery policies to keep the youth onside.

The only way that it would make sense to me is to change other legal age limits. Currently, we treat 16 and 17 year olds as children, they must be in education. They can't smoke, drink, marry or gamble. How can you say that someone is not old enough to leave education or marry but old enough to decide if we should raise taxes or reduce benefits? You would need to have the average 16 year old to understand and have the ability to work (to support yourself/household), the economy, taxation, welfare, vague understanding of world politics, etc. I know not all adults have this, but they have already made the choice between working or education. The 16 year olds I know would pay every teacher, school cleaner, school cook, nurse and doctor 200k if they had the choice (yes, these groups do deserve good pay). They would have no idea how much that would cripple the whole country, raise taxes and cause benefit cuts.

I think perhaps more political education is needed in schools before this can happen. However I would rather a 16 year old than 95 year old potentially..

FFS - why can a 95 year old not have the vote? Ageist claptrap.

It’s bonkers. I look at my almost 16 year old who is lovely, sensible etc… but there’s no way they’d be informed enough to vote! They can barely make beans on toast 😳

I didn't say that they couldn't 😂
And it was also just a thought process I had in the moment thinking about ages of voting. Majority of a manifesto affects a 16 year old and their future more than 95 year old.
My grandmother in her mid 80s is, blindly, voting for conservative because she reads the daily mail and that's all she sees. She won't have gone out and done her own research on what is actually better for the country, or even read the manifestos. Not saying of course that every elderly person is like that but just my experience

I support this. As long as that is the only change. I don't want parents to be able to absolve any responsibility for their children once they are 16, or change the age for alcohol purchase, for example.

Already happened, 16 year olds voted in the Scottish referendum

How many 16 and 17 year olds do you think earn enough to pay tax?

@Flopsy145 did it never occur to you that people don't just vote on issues that affect them?

Majority of a manifesto affects a 16 year old and their future more than 95 year old.

And your grandmother has every right to vote as she likes, regardless of where she gets her opinions from. Although I hate the Daily Mail with a passion

Well as a PP kindly pointed out VAT is a tax.

So basically buying anything in a shop makes you a taxpayer.

Whether or not that should give you any rights over where taxes are spent is up for debate.

And some people need to bear in mind that the definition used in law for "child" is a definition made in law, nothing more. It's not always been under 18 and in fact has changed depending on time. custom and fashion.