UK government to give all 16-year-olds the right to vote in seismic change

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/uk-government-give-16-year-35570717

Posted by dailystar_news

46 comments

  2. Yes, let’s give the hormonal teenagers who notably go through periods of political turmoil the right to vote, what could go wrong?

  3. When i was 16, I was an edgy communist and thought I should have the right to vote. Now im 26 and a bit wiser, I see this as the exact reason why 16YOs shouldn’t be voting.

  4. Labour have fucked it so now they’re going to rig the system in their favour. Beautiful.

  5. If they are allowing them to vote as adults, they need to face court as adults at 16, and they should also ve allowed to drink alcohol.

    Can’t have it both ways, they are either adults or they aren’t.

  6. Should have had 16 year olds voting on Brexit, as it was their future

  7. I agree with this, but it has to go hand in hand with actual education into politics.

  8. You should have the right to vote when you’re taxed on your earnings.

    I think we should either start taxing earnings at 18 or let the 16 year olds vote. I don’t think it’s very fair having it one but not the other.

  9. They pay taxes when they’re working at that age so they should be allowed to vote, unlike the angry boomers in this sub

  10. Could seriously backfire on Labour and other left-wing parties. They are banking on the younger generation voting left, but neglect to realise the youth are also very susceptible to propaganda on social media. Reform and other right-wing parties have dominated the social media game, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a significant uptick for reform when we get closer to the next election.

  11. This is excellent. Hopefully it’ll balance out the voter demographics a bit and we’ll get a bit more of a progressive parliament instead having 2 of flavours of conservative in charge.

    16 year olds deserve to vote given how much policies affect their future.

  12. Excellent, hopefully break the grip that OaPs seem to have over policy making atm.

  13. Seems a bit odd that at 16 you’re now considered mature enough to vote and understand its implications, but not enough to drink, smoke, drive a car, have a credit card or mortgage, join the armed forces, get married, watch porn, buy a sharp object etc etc

  14. Corrections: UK government to give their parents of 16-years-old an extra vote

  15. I’m in my early 50s and support this. As others have said, 16 year olds can pay tax, join the armed forces.

    I remember being 16 and 17. We had lessons in school before 16 on Government and Politics. We had a trip to Westminster and a tour around with our local MP, and watched a debate in the Commons.

    We had mock elections and debates. The mock elections actually turned out a result that was pretty much inline with the local results at the real election.

    There are plenty of adults who appear to vote without researching the issues and policies, and later complain that they didn’t realise what they voted for. I don’t see anyone standing up and saying they can’t vote.

  16. So they can’t drink alcohol, but they can vote. Got it.

    The U.K. is not a serious country anymore. I’m rather glad I emigrated 10 years ago.

  17. The idea that you can allow people nearing the end of life a vote and not people who have their whole lives ahead of them is absurd.

    Not least because those people at the end of life are typically much more conservative and hold very outdated views of the world.

  18. I think this is a bad idea. Maybe things are different now, but at sixteen I was more concerned with exams, uni applications and having fun than national or international politics. This is not a serious policy.

  19. This is just an attempt to stack the deck in Labours favour because young people tend to be more left leaning. It might well bite them in the arse though, because young people are typically quite far left rather than center left, so someone like Corbyn will probably appeal to them more than Jedwards Grandad (Starmer)

    16 is too young to vote in my opinion.

  20. Might as well, they can’t fuck things up any more than we already have.

  23. Find it interesting as right wing populism is taking hold of this generation, now they let them vote.

  24. Should be a minimum of 2yrs paying tax, same for everybody

  25. Young males are increasingly identifying with the right.

    I’m all for suffrage where suffrage is due but those celebrating shouldn’t be expecting all these votes to go to the more progressive parties (greens, lib dems).

    This could play into Reforms hands…

  26. I can only say that at 16, I thought I understood how things were in the world.

    I didn’t know jack shit.

  27. Quite happy for a 16 year old who is functioning as an adult (working, paying taxes etc) to vote. Some of the little shits near me shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near the ballot box, but we’re probably safe there as even if they got off their arses to vote I’m not convinced they’d work out how.

  28. Whilst I fully agree with this, reforming first past the post should be the main priority and voting should be mandatory like Australia.

    All of our democratic system needs reforming so we have proper representation of the UK people, not minority governments. Might make the BBC have to pay more attention to like the Greens or Lib Dems rather than just Farage, Labour and the Tories.

    I am sure we will get complaints about ‘lack of lived experience’, ‘wisdom’ or some of the similar argument against this. But when you see that like over 65s, with all their ‘lived experience’ voted in the likes of the high 60 to 70% for Brexit and 14 years of Tory failure that argument rings very hollow.

    At least most 16 and 17 year olds are not getting their information from the Daily Fail, GBeebies or some weird thing they read on facebook. Yeh sure they are probably getting information from social media and there is some bad stuff out there, but honestly there is probably a lot more progressive views being expressed on social media than there are on mainstream media. I mean that is why the right wing hates Gary Lineker so much and why they wanted to muzzle him, because he has a following they can’t control properly.

    Edit: Oh we should also be teaching more politics and critical thinking in schools as well.

  29. Sp trying to rig votes with the idiot generation

  30. This gonna do wonders for Jeremy Corbyn’s new party.

  31. Interesting, this is certainly going to upset some people.

  32. I’m Scottish, we already have this and I’m fine with it. It’s their future after all.

  33. Are they letting them run for elections too? Shouldn’t be able to expect them to vote if they aren’t represented

  34. Starmer says “And I think if you pay in, you should have the opportunity to say what you want your money spent on, which way the government should go.”

    So what about tax paying Europeans with settled status in the UK?

  36. Have any of you actually met or (as in my case) taught 16 year olds? Sorry but there’s no way they are mature enough to vote. In my opinion this is nothing more than an attempt to gerrymander

  37. Absolute joke. The majority of 16 year olds are idiots. I know I was and didn’t have a clue about anything at that age. This is terrible news. I can only hope they’re too lazy to vote.

  39. Not surprised since they’re chronically online so are much easier to manipulate.

    They’re the ones that are most susceptible to propaganda.

  40. Most sixteen years old don’t know their arse from their elbow let alone giving them the chance to vote.

  41. Bullshit, self-serving decision. I would agree that 16 years should be able to vote, on the basis that they get all the trappings that come with adulthood at the same time. If they’re old enough to vote, they should be old enough to buy a pint. If you acknowledge they’re not mature enough to do that, then they have no place voting.

  43. It’s either going to be a genius move or end fucking horribly

  44. Fck me. I didn’t even know what I wanted out of life when I was 16.

    But, hopefully, it works out and gives the oldies a run for their money during GE.

  45. I’m in Scotland, it’s fine with me.

    16 they can quit school, move out, get a job, get married, have a kid 🤷

  46. Last week Reddit was having a go at a 19 year old for being elected to run a council, saying he is too young and naive. Yet this week 16-17 year olds are old enough to vote and they are celebrating it…

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