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.

Not much though. They can't work full time. Most are in education anyway. Being indoctrinated by the lefty teachers. Let's hope our kids can see past their propaganda. I think Labour might be in for a shock. Remember, Rachel Reeves has wrecked the future job prospects of a lot of kids.

They won't "all" be paying tax. Most won't unless they earn over £12K per year which they won't if they are in FT education. A few may do, the majority won't. Youth unemployment is 14.2% eg 628 000.
Are you aware of popularity of Andrew Tate amongst young men? 1 in 6 view him positively and you think giving them a vote is a good idea??

"They might be indoctrinated by lefty teachers" is the worst reason yet given on this thread.

That applies to all of us who have ever voted unless we were 18 in an election year though.

Wait until you hear about VAT, it's gonna blow your mind.

Exactly, what have kids got to look forwards to? Sky high levels of student debt/no jobs/not being able to afford to buy a house and a lifetime of paying tax.

Why? I think you aren't thinking properly.

I agree with you about tuition fees - complete travesty (I was the last year that didn’t pay them). But if you are looking for someone to blame for that it’s the Scottish Labour MPs that voted to take it away from students in England while knowing it would have no effect on their own constituents. It wouldn’t have passed without them numbers wise.

I was very engaged politically at 16, watched and read the news, discussed the issues etc. So were many of my friends.

And yes, we probably were exceptions to the rule because many of our peers were much less interested, informed and engaged than we were.

Now that I'm in my fifties, I wouldn't say that anything has really changed. Many people of my age still aren't really interested, informed or engaged. So what's the difference? Should I be denied the vote at my age because so many of my peers can't be arsed to make an effort?

You can still get married at 16 in Scotland.

An 11 year old buying sweets pays VAT. Does that "blow your mind" and you therefore think 11 year olds should get the vote?

A 6 Yr old will pay VAT, let's give them the vote too 🙄

I think they should be allowed to vote... because they will reach adulthood during that parliament. Whether they're ill informed or not capable of understanding the issues is irrelevant... plenty of adults are like that.

We all had to wait though (unless as I mentioned you were 18 in an election year). I reality, it's a cynical ploy by the Labour Party I'm afraid.

In Scotland we’re had voting at 16 for the Scottish Parliament elections for a while. There’s evidence that enfranchising these young people earlier has a positive effect on their continued turnout as they get older, compared to those who were given the vote at 18. That’s got to be a good thing. We need to encourage young people to have a stake in their country instead of babying them, and to give them hope that younger generations can impact on politics. Otherwise every election is going to be decided by the grey vote forever more.

Report here: https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/assets/doc/Votes%20at%2016%20in%20Scotland.pdf

Haven’t read the whole thread so apologise if this has been posted already.

The support for Andrew Tate amongst young men is very worrying indeed, but around 30% of the adult electorate apparently now supports Reform. Are you proposing that we should only give the vote to people who demonstrate that they can use it responsibly? Because it will be the end of democracy as we know it if we go down that route.

I can’t get worked up about this when I reflect that many, many adults entitled to vote seem to have reasoning skills that stopped developing before age 16. The level of comprehension and critical thinking I see online don’t suggest a huge gulf of maturity and experience between 16 and 18 or even 40 when it comes to current affairs.

Because the implication is that if most teachers were right thinking sensible Tories (lol) it would be fine.

Bit of a generalisation there. Do you think only "clever" people should have the vote?

No I'm not but I'm against giving 16 Yr olds the vote unless you also simultaneously change the legal age of being an adult to 16 including driving etc. You can't have it both ways.

This is purely a ploy by Labour to get more votes which will, of course, backfire on them. They are more likely to vote Reform, Corbyn, Green or Andrew Tate (who is standing for election).

I think the Labour Party might be overestimating their current popularity with the young.

But voting and driving aren't the same thing.

You can't kill someone by voting, for a start.

Nevertheless, you can currently drive earlier than you can vote, despite the fact that you could kill someone.

Well you think wrong. Children should not be politically indoctrinated at school at all.

Most teachers work for the state and are a member of a union therefore are generally lefty. Unfortunately many teachers are unable to keep their politics out of the school room.

Oh most definitely.

Not true.
That "law" only applies in England and nothing happens if a 16/17 year old "drops out" (and often goes off and gets a full time job).