Published on 12, July, 2020
labour are toying with the idea of allowing 16 or 17 year old the vote. I think about time too, in the devolved assemblies you get the vote at 16. I don't think you can ask young people to be better citizens and do more for society without giving them a say on government.
i think they need to raise the voting age to be fair.thinking on my own life.... a me even at age 25 was still developing.... shouldnt have had any right to say anything on politics as i didnt have my life in order and was bad decision maker.... i think perhaps there needs to be a thing where you have to have your life in order first and thus show to know how the world works and how to live, before your allowed a vote... this way then sure there maybe some 16 year olds who are developed beyond their years who slip into life easy, they can vote.... but me when i was in my 20s? .... hell no...i was living with parents never worked and none functional... why should i have a say on politics at that state? id be speaking from a position in which i vote for things without realising it is bad for living, it is bad for ability for anyone to survive... but i dont know at that time in my life as i dont function.but some 16 year olds may... so perhaps then not age, but voting should be judged by your life and adulting situation.... although thats harder, more complex.... but sure i dont think people want a horde of none functional people who dont work, voting for things that increase taxes on workers so that workers can no longer live in this country no matter how hard they work... we need a bit of sense
How would you prove sufficient understanding? I agree that teenagers arn't always fully informed about politics or life in general, but then neither are many adults.
I look back at so many things I've said and done in my life and think I was so young then, but was my 30 or 40 year old self really so uninformed? We all change as we go through life, politics changes too and I think we vote or not according to the changing priorites of both our lives and our times. Things like AI were a distant sci fi dream when I was 30, now many see them as an existential threat, same as social media, I don' tthink we can vote bcause thats how we've always voted, although I'm sure many do
TheCatWoman said:I agree that teenagers arn't always fully informed about politics or life in general, but then neither are many adults.
This is the crux of the matter.
People either don't want the bother of educating themselves about the choices (too much work) or don't care.
Young people that are the target of this lowering of voting age thing are much more likely to be motivated - idealistic and with free time and are more likely to vote for the more sympathetic lines taken by Labour.
Conservatives tend to come from the older voters, the better off and more upwardly mobile voters, few of who are likely to be boosted by the young vote.
A much more meaningful move would be for the politicians to vote for proportional representation, but with the way we have maintained a 2 party system for so long it is in neither of their interests. It would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.
yes we can change... but taking a young person and asking them to vote right away right now at this time in their uniformed life? ... they will vote wrong, they will vote based on what a teacher told them not based on their own experience... its a fake vote, its a rigged voter.the young kid reading this... maybe not liking that.... but they have to then realise, they want kids to vote as the kids are uninformed, they dont like adults voting as adults have lived and formed their own opinion on experience.... they want kids to drown out responsible real adult vote by experience..... but the kid who wants to push this should think on it this way.... they are but a kid now, in the future they will be 30, they will be adult with their own real opinion based on real life.... and then these people who pushed for the young uninformed to vote will no longer like them, because they are old now and have experience and their own opinion... they will be discarded by the people doing this, they are only valued when they are too young and impressionable and have no experience... the people that want this respect their vote now as they can manipulate it... but they wont respect their vote when they grow older. they are not kids forever, and they will be discarded by the people doing this when they are older.