Children voting at 16 years !!

[excuseme]

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What a load of nonsense children aloud to vote at 16 !! It's shameful !
They have NO life experience and NO idea about life to know what they are voting for, they may be able to make babies, work and pay taxes but they are little more than growing babies themselves.
Bring back the age of getting the "Key of the door" at 21 years with voters a sensible age and more experience of life itself!

 

[JudyN]

I think 16-year-olds on the whole are a lot more well informed than we were at that age, whereas voters at the other end of the spectrum have built up a lifetime of biases. Have a read of this article into the impact of 16- and 17-year-olds getting the vote in other countries - it may surprise you: What happens when 16-year-olds get the vote? Other countries are already seeing the benefits | Christine Huebner

 

[JoanneF]

Mr F and I spoke about this earlier. Rather than an age test, we thought a sort of social awareness test might be better.

We need something to weed out 'I'm voting for this party because my father, grandfather, great grandfather, mates do'. In some places, if you put the right colour of rosette on a bag of flour people will vote for it.

 

[Mad Murphy]

I'm 60 and there are an awful lot of women at my age who still vote in whichever way their husband decides. Don't underestimate 16 year olds after all look at the present government, look at brexit ,the over 18's didn't make very good or well informed choices about that now did they? Take a look at Nigel Farage and the amount of popularity he has gained I don't think that his voters necessarily have a well-developed frontal cortex and yet none of them are 16..

Let's not write off 16 and 17 year olds they might be idealistic they might vote emotionally but I think that they have a fairly good grip of what's going on around them and after all it's their future their voting for.

 

[Dibbythedog]

I think they should have left it at 18.

 

[Linz1012]

I'm in two minds about this.

On the one hand, I can see the argument about 16 and 17 year olds not having much life experience, and, as it's already been mentioned, I remember how ill-equipped I felt in the referendum, despite being well into my 30s at the time. I can see how some 16-17y/os might feel the same. Notice I say "might", not do. I don't know. I do know that at that age, I didn't have a clue about politics, and would probably have been swayed by the way my parents voted. Having said that, my parents kept who they voted for absolutely private, and didn't even tell us.

On the other hand, however, there were pensioners in bungalows who proudly displayed their "I'm Voting Reform" cards in their windows. A lifetime of experience, the horrors of Hitler in theirs or their parents' memories, and they fall for the charisma of Britain's answer to Trump. Maybe kids are more switched on to politics more than I was. I dunno.

 

[Dibbythedog]

They recently put the age of marriage up to 18 recently .

@JoanneF I think the bag of flour would do better than out current MPs .

I'm middle of the road, Ive voted for different parties but don't trust any. They will say anything to get your vote.
I only vote because its my right. I voted for Count Binface once !