Should The Voting Age Lowered Or Rasied.....

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-politics-69059992

Sir Beer wants to lower it to 16, of course he does, it's well known that youngsters are left wing until they acquire assets. Personally I'd raise it to 21.

[Deskdiary]

TTT at 7.49pm - as I matured I quickly realised the Conservative values were better than Labour values.

[Peter Pedant]

the idiots have left for other shores. That's why we regained sovereignty.

oh yes -  those lovely blue passports ( I have one!) - and having to obey EU rules without a say,  that sovereignty

[Peter Pedant]

as I matured I quickly realised

does anyone know this, Deedee?

( sozza, spoofing a mod posting a one-liner as a punter)

[Old_Geezer]

It's weird how Starmer seems to be desperately trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Maybe he's a secret Reform admirer.

[Old_Geezer]

You don't have to obey EU rules. Did you not realise ? You don't have to have anything to do with them. Or was that a failed attempt at trolling ?

[Deskdiary]

I suppose another way to look at this, for those that think it's a good idea, would you be happy to send a 16 year old to die on a battlefield? If a 16 year old child is old enough to vote, then surely they must be old enough to die.

 

 

[Untitled]

labour want it lowered because they think they'll get more votes and the tories don't want it lowered because they also think labour would gain votes... that's really all there is to it lol. it is not an issue of any substance. 
 

the age must be set somewhere and i don't think it really matters all that much

[Untitled]

" If a 16 year old child is old enough to vote, then surely they must be old enough to die."

that's a rather silly thing to say lol

[Untitled]

if you really truly want to restrict voting to people with maturity or intelligence or whatever then age and resources are not reliable indicators of these things... you could in theory have an "adulthood exam" that you can sit at any age and have to retake every 5-10 years and pass in order to vote... that way child prodigies would not suffer disenfranchisement haha 

but it is going to be age based forever and 18 or 16 really makes no difference as far as i can see

[Khandro]

Looking at the ill-informed bigotry on college campus' and on the streets by a cohort of largely teenagers & twenty-somethings. I think the voting age should be raised not lowered.

I suggest 35 might be low enough.

p.s. and only those born in the UK should be entitled to vote.

[Mozz71]

Judging by some of the idiotic statements and ill-informed waffle I've seen on AB over the years, maybe an upper-limit should be introduced too. 

[10ClarionSt]

Just imagine it was 16 now. Would they all vote in favour of bringing back conscription? 

[Mozz71]

Here's a couple of slightly more sensible ideas:

Is your main residence outside of the UK? If it is and it's not because of your occupation, you lose your right to vote.

Were you born outside the UK to non-UK citizens? Yes? No vote for you either.

Voting history: if you haven't exercised your right to vote repeatedly in the past, what's the point of you being given a vote now? 

[1ozzy]

//I agree, Sandy. Around 35 to 40 (when they no longer know everything) seems about right//

So you want only dumb *** to be those that are allowed to vote.

***, God help us all!!

[Old_Geezer]

I have to disagree with them being sensible.

 

If living abroad but still a UK citizen you may still want the best for your country, and may wish to see standards kept high, possibly in anticipation of a return at some point.

 

If born outside the UK then there may be some argument for restrictions, but if you have genuinely adopted this country are you not entitled to have a say ? A blanket ban seems inappropriate wrt basic citizen rights.

 

Since the right not to have to vote for a candidate you don't approve of is equally important as the right to select one you do, the idea of removing the right to vote is a complete non-starter. In fact a public information campaign to inform the public that they don't need to feel obliged to vote for garbage manifestos would probably be a good thing.

[Untitled]

"Were you born outside the UK to non-UK citizens? Yes? No vote for you either."

there are millions of people who are born abroad and become British citizens... for many it is long and difficult and expensive process. frankly such people do a lot more to earn their citizenship than the average born brit does. why should they be disenfranchised?

[Untitled]

outside of infancy/basic education there is no correlation at all between age and wisdom. many old people are extremely bigoted and many go through life thinking they were taught everything they needed at 18 and refuse to learn anything else. others especially of the boomer generation are simply too self-absorbed and emotionally fragile to develop. many more of course are more normal and do learn from experience and develop empathy as they get older. 

while there are young people who are stupid or overconfident or lazy it is also not difficult to find examples of young people who work extremely hard to improve themselves, to learn and to think.

past a certain point a person's age tells you absolutely nothing about their intellectual ability, their maturity or their compassion.

so... if we absolutely must decide who can vote based on age then it really does not matter what age it is set at. it is arbitrary.

[davebro3]

Boomer generation //The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964 during the mid-20th century baby boom. //

//others especially of the boomer generation are simply too self-absorbed and emotionally fragile to develop.//

Really?

[Cloverjo]

I'm a lefty, but I think this is a silly idea. 16 year olds are still kids.

It won't do them any harm to wait two years.

[THECORBYLOON]

I've been trying unsuccessfully, to find the relevant legislation regarding those in the armed forces prior to the minimum voting  age was reduced to eighteen.

When tne minimum age was twenty-one, were those in HMF allowed a vote at eighteen?