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?

Over 65s have earnt the right to vote how they wish and believe what they wish, whether you agree with them or not. They've lived AS ADULTS through many governments, recessions, boom and bust housing, 3 day weeks, the miners' strikes, trades unions battles, wars, the .com bubble, the introduction of freedom of movement, the Brexit campaign, they've seen the NHS at its best and its worst, they can reflect on all the changes in society and public services over many decades both positive and negative and make a judgement on how they came about and who/what was responsible for making things worse or better.

16 and 17 year olds are not even considered legally adult. They have no frame of reference for anything. They are easily groomed and manipulated. If you want to give a 16 year old the right to vote then why should an 18 year old's parents be expected to subsidise their university education by contributing to housing costs etc? They are either fully fledged adults investing in their own futures or they are still quasi-children who shoud expect financial input from parents, rather than obtain a student loan big enough to do the whole job properly.

Well Shemima Beggum thought it was a pretty cool idea to fly to Syria to become a jihadi bride. People want to lower the voting age because they know young'uns have a strong left leaning bias and thus are much more likely to vote for a left-wing party. I do find it comical that one of the arguments in defence of Shemima is that she didn't know what she doing at the time and that she was brainwashed. Surely that's more of a reason to increase the voting age instead of lowering it.

They absolutely should be encouraged to be engaged in politics, but that doesn't mean they should be allowed to vote.

As it stands at the moment, most people of that age can barely be persuaded to engage with other human beings in a real life, non-online setting, let alone apply themselves properly to understanding how the economy, the public and private sector and politics works.

Given the announcement this morning re national service then perhaps it is not a bad idea to consider lowering the voting age. We don’t want to become some sort of self serving old society do we? Or any more than we have done already.

Exactly this. We accuse adults of 'grooming' 16 and 17 year olds into doing things that are not necessarily illegal at their age, but where we don't think they are mature enough to fully understand the long term consequences or realities of some of their choices. We know when they are being cynically exploited by adults, but they don't always recognise it.

Is this really so different? You court them and flatter them by making them believe you respect and value them as adults, not children. Then you set about an organised campaign of manipulation for your own ends. I realise that the very nature of political campaigning involves elements of what might be termed manipulation, but adults are assumed to have the maturity, the experience and the critical thinking skills to make conscious choices and decisions in a way that 16 year olds are not.

Yes, if they’re working.

Brexit would not have happened if 16/17 year olds had had their say: which they should have.

If a 16 yo is working but commits a crime, should he be housed with adults in prison? Shall we stop caring about 16/17yos in care, and ensuring that they're in safe, inspected accommodation? This is where this idea leads.

Unless of course you're going Full Scotland, where rapists get off as they're under 25.

But they will do a double mastectomy on you aged 16.

Fucking insane. And dangerous.

I think it's a good idea. Other countries do this.

I think you can always find examples of immature 16-17 years olds, but equally there are plenty of idiotic over 18s, after all someone over 18 keeps voting for things like the monster raving looney party. Being too stupid to vote sensibly is not restricted to the under 18s. Plus, the 16-17 year olds would probably have saved us from Brexit...........

ResisterRex
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Fucking insane. And dangerous.

Why? Because they may not agree with you 😁

Don't half quote me. It's rude.

Yeah, that's why I said England and Wales.

Scotland, where children can get married and vote but rapists don't go to prison if they're under 25, is not a great example of a coherent policy on age restrictions.

@MrsSkylerWhite what's Brexit got to do with teenagers voting? How is being out of the EU affecting teenagers? Oh don't tell me... freedom of movement. Because nobody can up sticks now and go and live and work in mainland Europe without a little extra bureaucracy, can they? Bless their poor widdle hard-done by souls.

By some posters logic on here about not understanding economics and the realities of how the world works, we should ban voting for anyone under 25 then? Because 25 is when the prefrontal cortex is fully developed and people can make more rational decisions? Why should it be 18? How much more do 18 year olds understand about politics?

Most of the population has very little critical thinking ability whether they’re 16 or 65 and the average reading and maths ages of the U.K. population is around 9 years old. I had far more common sense at 16 than my parents, and they will admit that. Where do you draw the line? Should you only get to vote subject to an IQ test or something? 😂

Voting is an adult right.

I don’t support children voting.

Any 16yo that is studying economics/politics and loves current affairs - they are free to chat to their parents about how they’d vote if they could. I have a 16yo - if she presented me with a sound argument to vote a particular way, I might well consider it. Currently I think most politicians are lying megalomaniacs. She does study economics. But I have life experience. And I actually remember which party did what and when. Lots of people don’t realise that tuition fees for university came in under Labour, for example. I lived through those times and my brother got caught by fees (I didn’t) - so I know exactly when it was. The fact that people are asking whether Keir Starmer is going to reverse something that Labour originally passed is bizarre.

Anyway. No.

And I think the age of consent should be raised to 18, rather than lowering the voting age to 16.

I have spoken to an Oxbridge educated adult who considered voting for the Monster Raving Loony Party. Most politicians are actually monster raving loonies anyway.

I agree with this. If anything, raise the age of consent. And don't kid yourself that won't be next on the list for being lowered because it definitely will.

It's the boiled frog analogy, by legislation.

The Monster Raving Loony Party advocated wheelchair ramps for buses, all day pub opening, commercial radio, pet passports, and heritage protection for Wensleydale cheese. All more sensible than many ideas of the Tories.

To be fair to your son - a significant number of ‘grown ups’ are the same. Frightening.

When our brains don’t fully develop til we are 25, it’s an odd decision.

Even then the prefrontal cortex is last part of the brain to develop, that part of the brain is responsible for decision making, prioritising, attention and impulses. Even more terrifying.

Probably why Labour like it.

I agree with this.

In Wales 16 year olds can now vote in local elections and senedd, which is next year. Can't say they're interested in local councils so far.

Voting is an adult right.

Define "adult".

Since when did Labour care about rights? They’re going to take away any women’s rights by nature of the fact they’re going to allow any man to legally call himself a woman. Following a short admin task. Thereby making the category of ‘woman’ as we know it, meaningless.

Suddenly they give a shit about 16yr olds voting rights. I wonder why.

Not many countries allow 16/17 yearolds to vote - those that do are largely in South America.

"The voting age in the bulk of countries around the world sits at 18. More than 85 percent of nations fall into this group, likely covering that percentage of the world's population or more. These include the United States, United Kingdom, India, China, Japan, Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Australia, Peru, Chile, Israel, South Africa, and many more."

And for any woman to legally become a man. A fact universally unacknowledged on MN. It’s not one way traffic.