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?

Excellent idea. Why should a 90 year old with mild dementia who is unable to follow the campaign and less than a year of life remaining get to vote, and not a thoughtful, well-informed 16 year old whose entire adult life is going to be influenced by contemporary politics?

I'm sorry but that’s you’re failing. Most senior school children are politically engaged. Children are bright and know what’s right and what’s wrong.
Our 16 year olds were politically engaged. (13 and 6 years ago)

Not my experience as a teacher I'm afraid. Also very many kids spend their lives on the internet and are swayed by influencers, tiktok and the like.

👏

Problem is that many/most teachers re very left leaning and many of them, for example, very pro trans ideology which is dangerous for vulnerable kids. There would be little balance imo.

Absolutely this!

I work with kids and I would say at least 90% of them are not interested/dont have a clue, which is as it should be quite honestly, they're not adults yet

And how interesting the majority of responses are on this thread when MN is famously the land of 'but their brains arent fully developed until they're 102, you cant ask anything of young adults'

Yes this really stood out to me too! There have been various radio presenters saying it too - Carol Vorderman on LBC for example.

One only has to listen to the music liked by 16 year olds to know that they must not be given a say in who runs the show.

Good point!

Wow.

LOL, so true!

I'm in favour. They're old enough to know their minds. I think it will encourage them to think about politics and feel more stake in society. Yes there will be some who vote for stupid reasons, but the same applies to all ages.

I asked my teenager and they said “It’s a terrible idea, my mates would vote for the most obnoxious candidate for a laugh”.

And they are an intelligent, worldly group of kids, so it’s a hard no from me.

hopsalong · Today 08:43
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Excellent idea. Why should a 90 year old with mild dementia who is unable to follow the campaign and less than a year of life remaining get to vote, and not a thoughtful, well-informed 16 year old whose entire adult life is going to be influenced by contemporary politics?”

Completely agree. It’s perfectly acceptable, it seems, to insult the intelligence of 16 year olds but whoa betide anyone who dares suggest that elders can be incompetent or politically uninformed/disengaged.

A lot of older voters have already messed up the futures of youngsters with their ridiculous vote leave cast. Those youngsters should at least get a say in who is in charge of trying to sort out the chaos they created.

A teacher up thread suggested that their 16 year old students were clueless. Perhaps move to another school. That was not the experience at either of ours, with many going on to study A level politics.

I'm not being funny, but whilst you obviously have clearly very intelligent boffins for children, who are probably going to be Prime Minister one day, and are utterly fascinated and totally clued-up on politics, (and probably know more than most people over 30,) the vast majority of children are not interested in politics, and know very little about it.

They have no idea what the European Union is, couldn't tell you what the name of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is - or the Foreign Secretary - or the Home Secretary. and they probably couldn't name more than three political parties except for Conservative, Labour and Lib Dems, (if that.)

And the majority of children aged 16 and 17 (and they ARE children!) are only interested in getting pissed, possibly smoking, skateboarding, shagging, music, trying to get into a club, trying to get a boyfriend or a girlfriend, going out with their mates, video games, fashion and clothes, pop culture, social media, and reality TV stars. (Oh, and their A levels!)

It's absolutely ludicrous to suggest that the vast majority of 16 to 17 year olds are massively interested in politics and know everything about it. Come on, get in the real world for goodness sake. Most 16 and 17 year olds don't give a stuff about politics and know naff-all about it (unless they are studying it at school!) We have even had a TEACHER on here confirming this!

Why the need to sneer about bright kids? Boffins? Grow up. If your children are as you describe it’s not difficult to see why.

Thats not been our experience. I’m sorry that it’s been yours.

Yes it works well in the devolved nations and if you can work and pay income tax you should be able to vote for how your tax is used.

16 year olds can vote in Scottish elections.

Mostly they are just the same as adults. Some think deeply and carefully about their choices and others vote SNP.

I'm inclined to agree, and the worry is that they will be coerced by the adults around them, parents, teachers, religious community leaders etc, to vote in a way that those people want them to vote and they'll go along with it because they don't know any better. Whereas, left to their own devices they'd probably not bother to vote at all.

😂😂😂

It's legalised vote rigging. There are no principles behind this. Labour's polling will have shown they will benefit from this or else they wouldn't be suggesting it.

But there is no right answer. Plenty of adults don't understand the issues they are voting on. You only need to watch the 1% club to realise just how stupid the general public is

You only need to watch the 1% club to realise just how stupid the general public is

I don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows ....

I worked at a prison which was 50% YOI (for 17+) and 50% adult (21+)
Both sides worked and lived together and they were treated the same in most day to day activities including work, training, education, rehab, etc. They just wore a different colour.

We also don't have enough adult prison spaces for the adults, let alone trying to fit even more in!

But it could be under strict guidelines. Currently the media is so biased be that mainstream media or social media. We really need to teach young people to critically think about reliable resources as well as to understand the basic philosophies behind left and right politics.
A lot of that is factual and could be laid out clearly.
My kids learn RE one of their teachers is Muslim and the other Christian. They do a very good job at teaching about all religions as well as atheism, tackling very complex moral issues in a fact-based theories approach.

In England you can't get married at 16y, even with parental permission, anymore.

Its already the case that men, with cock attached, can be legally women, the Tories made the GRC really easy to get, cheap and applicants are almost 100% successful.

You really do need to keep up with current affairs as the vast majority of sports already ban men from competing in female sport.... governing bodies did this, with no help from the Tories.