Voting For 16 And 17 Year Olds !

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29327912

How do we all stand on allowing 16 and 17 year olds to vote in Elections ?
I personally think that we should try it. In my lifetime you used to have to be 21, but that was changed to 18 in 1969. So perhaps we are overdue a change.

[kvalidir]

I think most 16 year olds are perfectly capable of grasping the concepts which would enable them to vote with integrity, so I would be for it. There are clearly those who wouldn't be up to fully understanding what was being discussed but you could also say that about some elderly people and the small percentage of both which fall short of the required understanding do not in my opinion offer sufficient weight to argue that either group should not be allowed to vote on matters which affect them. You cant cure disengagedness or outright lack of interest in any group but generally the more you ask of people the more they perform, so all in all a good thing I think.

[anneasquith]

yes.

[Sqad]

\\\\I think most 16 year olds are perfectly capable of grasping the concepts which would enable them to vote with integrity,\\\\

"most?"....that I feel is debatable.

\\There are clearly those who wouldn't be up to fully understanding what was being discussed but you could also say that about some elderly people\\

A good point Kvali, but they would have had experience of "life" which may win them a few credits........perhaps.

It will come down to 16 in time........bit for me.......not now.

[naomi24]

18 is about right.

[ummmm]

Kvalidir....not most of the 16 year olds I know. All they are interested in is girls and football.

[B00]

I can't imagine many 16/17 year olds being interested enough to have an opinion on this, never mind actually going to a polling station to vote.

[aelmpvw]

good idea to give them the vote, the 16 year olds who are interested in politics are rightly frustrated that they can't vote, the rest probably wouldn't bother anyway.

[sp1814]

At sixteen you can get married (with parental consent), start full time employment, move out of your parents' home and start a family.

With this in mind, it seems an anomaly that 16 and 17 year olds are barred from voting for the people who's policies directly affect them as for all intents and purposes, they can be living as adults.

At 16, you may also elect to join the armed forces (although not in front line capacity until you're 18), and commit to *six years* service.

If we can trust 16 year olds to make a commitment such as that, why can't we trust them in their voting intentions?

If we can trust them to bring children into the world, why can't we trust them to understand politics?

Either we raise the age of consent, to 18, for all these life events, or we loŵer the voting age to 16. It's illogical to have both 16 and 18 as the age of majority.

[-Talbot-]

Kvalidir....not most of the 16 year olds I know. All they are interested in is girls and football.

You forgot about he Xbox/ps4 ummmm.

I say no, you only have to listen to the blinkered views on here to realise that most would vote the same as mam or dad. (by means of the nasty Indoctrination we keep hearing about on here)

[B00]

None of those examples you gave sp affect me or mine so I personally don't care whether they can or can't do those things at 16, whereas their votes very well could.

[ummmm]

He's 17 now, Talbot, he's grown out of the xbox.

[kvalidir]

'Most 16 year olds are not interested in politics' may be true in some quarters because there is no point in them being interested as they can't vote- it's a sort of self fulfilling prophesy- expect nothing of people and they will never disappoint you. Not enough is expected of young people, and they are frequently written off as a result as being lazy, stupid, only interested in computer games, girls, alcohol etc- it's not surprising when they are still treated like children.

[Old_Geezer]

I know folk in their 50 & 60s that have not grown out of an XBox. It's a leisure activity.

Quite right sp, raise the limit to 18 for all that. The problem is that there is no obvious step change in a person's life when we can say they are child or adult, so different things are allowed over a range of ages. Whatever you opt for, to apply to all, is going to seem to have anomalies somewhere, or else not match reality.

[kvalidir]

I'd be very happy not to vote until I am 18 if I don't have to pay income tax, as an aside to the point.

[Prudie]

I think 18 is old enough. Most 16 year olds are not interested in politics and it was so when I was young, not just now. I was one of the many blinkered teenagers who would have voted as my parents told me :-). I think the reasoning behind lowering the age has a far more devious purpose than is let on.

[mikey4444]

OG...is a 16 year old a child ?

[youngmafbog]

//Your posts are irrelevant to the main thread.//

Really, sounds like a lefty sound bite to discount my opinion because I dont agree with you.

[youngmafbog]

//OG...is a 16 year old a child ? //

Well, by law they are not an adult.

[mikey4444]

YMB...my post wasn't about party politics and so when you changed the subject and made it so, you were being irrelevant. Start your own thread on the issue if you like though.

[Old_Geezer]

Possibly strictly speaking a 16 year old is more of an adolescent, between childhood and adulthood: but we need a single birthday as a marker so yes, I'd suggest 16 is more child than adult. Our society tends to use 18 as finally adult, before that they are 'almost so', and maybe deemed appropriate to be granted a few more 'rights' & 'responsibilities' each year.