Age Laws - UK.

[smudge]

As AB Ed has just banned my legitimate question on this subject, I shall rephrase it & see if it stays.

 

Do you agree/disagree with the following current laws? Would you like to see any changes & if so, what?

 

Legal:  Sex at 16

Legal:  Have children at 16

Legal:  Marriage at 16

Legal:  Driving lessons at 17

Legal:  Pass driving test - go out on roads alone at 17

Illegal:  Purchase/Drink alcohol in public places until 18

 

 

[ICEMANSAV]

No laws have ever stopped underage sex, that wasn't the question though was it. Where is the contradiction with heterosexual sex at 18 and homosexual at 21, its a viewpoint, and afterall that was what the question asked. Nothing to do with immaturity or maturity in this issue.

[Westminster]

Since this one seems to have gone off-topic already, in the UK you can vote at 18, but you have to be 21 to take your seat as an MP. I wonder what the European Court of Human Rights would make of that.

[ali_alic]

As for the driving a car issue, slightly off tangent here but you cannot ride a bike over 125cc until you are 21 (or have passed an A2 test and have ridden for 2 years), so why is it legal for a 17 year old lad to get into any car that he likes and any cc that he likes once he has passed his test?  OK the cost of insurance on a large cc car may be offputting but you can do a lot more damage in a car than you can on a motorbike!!

[dave888]

first of all, andy is boring.
I also agree with fp, a lot of young drivers are extremely careful mainly because of the rigorous driving tests. It's a few that give us a bad name. It's the older drivers that are the problem. There should be regular driving tests every year or two once a driver reaches 60. That's just common sense. It is a fact that older people have significantly slower reactions, which is the very reason as to why drink driving is banned.
In regard to the other laws, I think they are spot on and can't see a problem with any of the age limits.

[smudge]

dave888 - One of our daughters passed her test first time at 17. I would class her to be, as FP wrote, an EXCELLENT driver, along with the second daughter who passed her test in her twenties. It's just a shame that there are so many '****-*****' on the road with 'something to prove'.

On the flipside, I can't agree more, that some older folk are a liability on the roads. I have driven over 500 miles in the last three days & sitting behind 'dwardling' OAP's, driving well under the speed limit, with no notion that they are causing a long tail back, can be very frustrating! 

I am 57 & seem to be doing very well at the moment, but if & when I start getting the slightest inkling that I am becoming a burden, I will not hesitate to call it a day behind the wheel. Sad, but it comes to us all.

[smudge]

* Oh AB Ed - I don't think K*******s is that over the top is it?