If parliament had allowed 16-18 to vote

I ma 21 years of age and I live independently and I pay taxes so.. I know exactly what I am talking about.
I have experience, maturity and I am more educated, so my vote is more significant as compared to a person doing their a levels.

It's really hard to get that age group to vote responsibly for 2 main reasons:

1. There isn't enough education on political issues at that age since politics is not a widely available GCSE subject. They would have to have an interest in politics outside of school and I think for many young people of that age group politics is not a priority.

2. As a result of the previous point, their opinions can be easily swayed by adult figures in their lives; teachers, parents, neighbours, it's very easy for a 16-18 year old to simply vote for whatever they've been told to vote for as they presumably don't know enough about the implications of what they are voting for.

Sadly I think this is the reality, feel free to disagree.

I ma 21 years of age and I live independently and I pay taxes so.. I know exactly what I am talking about.
I have experience, maturity and I am more educated, so my vote is more significant as compared to a person doing their a levels.

I have to say I agree with you there, my entire family voted out but if I had the chance I would have voted in.
I really think if they gave 16-18 year olds the education about the referendum (the pros and cons, impacts etc) then the result could have almost definitely gone the other way.
To be honest I think the main reason why people voted out was to stop immigration and they haven't thought about the other consequences.
But there we go that's just my opinion.

Posted from TSR Mobile

@teenhorrorstory you have failed to consider turnout rates.




Turnout rate of 36% anyone?

Turnout rate of 36% but those of us who voted leave have ruined their future! How are they going to cope now? Sad times ahead oh my days 💤💤💤


Posted from TSR Mobile

Maybe the reason there isn't enough education on politics is because the government don't bother to teach us about it because we can't vote in the first place. If we were given the vote I'm sure the government would overload us with information about it to make sure we voted appropriately (for them ) anyway, if we are just going to go with what our parents say what would that matter, by what your saying it's adults who are the ones mature enough to make decisions so them making the decisions for us? By your reasoning it sounds like I'd be making the right decisions then?

Yes the govt. doesn't even bother teaching us about it because they see it as being futile (low turnout, they don't gain any votes from younger people so why bother etc etc) which is kinda sad in my view cos I love politics.

And I don't disagree with what you're saying about adults making informed decisions for you, but there's a problem where young people may feel under pressure from family members to vote a certain way. It's kind of like your parents having 2 votes simply because they have kids.

Yes, they did deserve their say. But so did the many 16 or 17 year olds who will have to live with the consequences of this election for years, possibly for the rest of their lives.

So not only do we want to give 16-18 year olds the vote, we want to give them the most SIGNIFICANT vote? Not sure that would work so great...

Surely our vote is especially important because the government actually decides how we are educated in the first place?

Read a few of these and it seems people are getting confused... Young people don't want to take away the vote from old people but instead simply think that it is unfair old people get it when we don't. It will affect us and not them and if mistakes were made we will have to deal with the repercussions. Further more children who aren't politically aware are less likely to be bothered to vote in the first place. Only those interested in politics are likely to vote and these types of people are not those to be influenced by parents/medi, I mean take a look at out youth parliament for a start.

I completely agree. So many people are claiming the young are showing ageism by saying we (like everyone else, including the elderly) deserve a vote, but at the same time they are stereotyping young people as stupid, lazy and uninterested in politics, which is surely also ageist. I couldn't agree with you more.

If 16-18 years old were allowed to vote in the referendum, then it's very likely that remain would have actually won. There's a very clear trend that shows how the elderly are very anti EU while the younger people tend to be pro EU. It's very frustrating for me as a 17 year old to see decisions being made by people who will honestly die within the next 10 years while I am unable to have a say. The future belongs to us, the youth.

Says something. So many young people are so disinterested and/or lazy and/or stupid that despite those who voted in the 18-24 category voting remain about three times as much as leave, when the whole cohort is taken into effect they have the lowest remain vote of any age group. The young cannot blame the old for brexit, they can only blame their non voting peers.

Posted from TSR Mobile

yeah, well, they're too young. "old people" aren't too young - they've had more experience than younger people overall.
16 years old is 2 years before they even leave school at this stage
if you agree that kids should stay in school until 18, which is most people from my experience, you have no right to argue that 16 year olds should vote, because you're saying that they're somehow intelligent enough to vote (which is the right which underpins all our liberties) yet they're not intelligent enough to live an independent adult life at 16 by leaving an institution like school which is for education (implying that they're not intelligent enough to go out into the world yet)

also, arent you forgetting that 18-25 year olds only turned out at a rate of 37%?
they simply weren't aware or concerned enough to vote, compared to the older, wiser generations.
if they should have voted, then why did their slightly older counterparts in the youngest voting block show such apathy?

Many 16 year olds don't stay in school, they go to college/ sixth form college which is a much ore adult environment with fewer rules and much larger emphasis on responsibility and making your own decisions. 16 year olds can also start apprenticeships or go into vocational training. The huge range of options for post 16 education require adults to trust 16 year olds to make informed decisions about their futures without being influenced too much by their peers.

yes but the law now in this country since a few years ago is that 16 years olds must do higher education. so basically it's no different to high school because it's the same compulsory education scheme. they're still being told that they're too dumb to live in the real world so why should they be told that they're intelligent enough to vote over it?