Why would anyone think 16 year-olds should be allowed to vote?

[MsAmerica]

Be honest - think back to when you were 16. Did you have an understanding of a broad range of issues? Did you pay serious attention to national news? Okay, even many adults may lapse on the score, but still, it seems crazy to me.

In the U.S., voting age had been 21 and the only reason it was lowered to 18 was that teens were being drafted to fight in Vietnam, and it was felt as unfair for them to have no say.

Considering what the so-called adults of this country have voted for in the past couple of decades, I'm all for letting the young have a go. Immaturity and lacking common sense are things that occur across all age groups after all.

That’s irrelevant as they weren’t talking about lottery, tenancies or cigarettes.

@Gonehome56 The manifesto was only last summer! Reform were known about. Of course it’s designed to boost Labour support. As sale of council houses boosted the Tory vote. The manifesto is besides the point - the reason it’s there is what matters.

I think it’s fine.

Some of the morons I have interacted with were so stupid it made me question how they remembered to breathe.

A 16 year old? Meh probably some of them aren’t politically literate but neither are a lot of voters.

The analysis I heard yesterday suggests that the change will at most be a matter of a few tenth of one percent in voting patterns. This may make a difference in very marginal constituencies, but overall it isn't a lot. The cohort is very small - just over 1.5 million people, as opposed to 12 million people over 65. What are you all so afraid of? Let them vote.

The same analysis also suggested that while the new group of voters did lean slightly more left, a substantial percentage of them leaned Reform - so it pretty much balances out. Let's stop panicking, shall we? Labour made a manifesto commitment, were voted in, and are now meeting said commitment. That's democracy in action.

I can't get worked up about this, I doubt many 16 year olds would make the effort to vote tbh. I do wonder what the motivation for this is - its not paramount on people's list of priorities. How many times does this get mentioned on the doorstep when prospective candidates are out canvassing for votes?

I absolutely would have wanted to vote at 16, and was pretty politically engaged. Doesn't mean i think it's a good idea now, though. Obviously parties of the nominal Left think, rightly, that it is to their advantage (as in Scotland).

Was it in the Labour manifesto?

It's hardly rocket science that if people who don't own property are disenfranchised, the gap between the haves and the have nots will only grow. Those with the vote will vote to consolidate their own wealth and power, and those with the least power will be unable to do anything about it. Who is going to be motivated to strengthen rights for tenants if tenants don't have the vote?

Yes it was. In that sense they can't be criticised - people need to pay closer attention to what they are voting for.

No, this is NOT about England and Wales. It’s about the UK elections, which includes Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Yes they should be allowed to vote.

For at least 3 reasons:
1 I think children are growing up faster than in the past, and need to be listened to, they have more tondeal with than we did.
2 They should be encouraged to debate the issues with their peers and teachers at school, it will give a more balanced view than getting all the information from social media or parents alone.

1. The young are more likely to vote for long term issues like the environment and decent affordable housing rather than triple-lock pensions.

I had current affairs lessons at primary school, and went to a secondary where we watched the news and debated among ourselves, but my children are disillusioned with politics, they don't watch any current affairs or news.

In England and Wales it's 18 to get married. Scotland and NI it's 16 with parental consent, but Scotland are looking to increase to 18. Unless you need parental consent to vote that's not the same thing.

In Scotland it's 16 to marry with no parental consent required.

It is quite amusing when people insist 16 and 17 year olds shouldn't be allowed to vote because they don't know enough and then go on to state outright wrong 'facts'.

If folks don't know that general elections cover more than just England and wales maybe they shouldn't be allowed to vote in them...

Yes, it was in the Labour manifesto. And they were voted in. Mandate in place.

This sums it up perfectly. I'm all in favour.

As for people saying 16 year olds don't have enough maturity and knowledge to make an informed choice, the same applies to many voters, regardless of age.

16 year olds have to live with the decisions made today.
we allow 80 year olds to vote (who have very little understanding of today’s world), 16 year olds make a lot more sense!

To be fair, they couldn’t do any worse than the politicians that are running the country now or the last lot, or shout over each other and heck of each other no different than being at school.

"Did you have an understanding of a broad range of issues?"

To be fair if the criteria for voting was " an understanding of a broad range of issues.", rather than age there'd probably be a lot of adults not allowed to vote either....

@Supersoarer Why do we want even more poorly informed people voting? We keep droning on about how awful our MPs are. We don’t want to pay them and think that their job is just representing a few constituents. The quality of MPs is low and we simply get student union politics - spouting what’s wrong but no workable ideas to improve anything. They are primarily lawmakers. They are not primarily advocates. It’s about time we got MPs who realised this and had the brains to make workable laws.

I would much rather have better citizen training for 16-18 year olds so they are ready to vote at 18.

Or you could start citizen training at 14 and have it both ways!

Why don't the parties of the right want young people voting? Their capacity to completely dominate politics is limited by their lack of meaningful offer for young people. Why on earth aren't they welcoming the opportunity? You either want to govern the whole of the country, not just the old kippers, or you don't.

It's very telling.

"You're old enough to kill, but not for voting". eve of Destruction, by the way.

of course they should be allowed the vote. Those that think 16 year olds don't know enough to have an opinion, should look around them. I've got acquaintances, at 74, who know nothing about politics, but still have a vote.

may be we should teach civics in school. Perhaps then we wouldn't have to rely on savy parents to reach their children.

I was lucky, I grew up in a family that talked about politics, in terms as a child I was able to understand. All children, in my view, should understand where, why and how, for example, the NHS exists.

@Ladybowes Do enlighten me. What % of voters voted for Labour? People did know to some extent what they were voting for, and it wasn’t Labour. We get huge majorities due to FPTP. In reality it was an annoying “promise” that sat with others that were more appealing and as we don’t have referenda on policies, we are stuck with it. The idea people cared about this enough to ditch Labour is fanciful. However manifestos are works of fiction very often.

Yet they are minors and can’t be held responsible legally as adults. They can’t even drive a car or buy cigarettes and if you join the army you are bit a proper soldier. You are a junior soldier at a college.

But did you see yourself as typical for a 16 year old?