Want to campaign for the 16 year old vote?

== We believe 16 and 17 year olds deserve to be heard in elections. If you agree and would like to get involved in researching our approach and then campaigning for change, please get in touch==

Having worked at The Student Room for 10 years, and as a College Governor at Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College, I've been overwhelmed by the number of highly engaged young students having really well informed debates on key political issues. This is sometimes more than can be said for much of the adult population.

As you turn 16 and 17 you gain the rights to get married, have children, join the army, drive, fly planes, as well as the to go to adult prison. As young people, you will also have to live with the consequences of political decisions for longer than any of the rest of us. To me it feels like a relic from the past that your voice is excluded from important political decisions. You have a right for your opinions to be listened to at the highest levels, and on the most important issues.

During the EU referendum our polls showed that 82% of 16 and 17 year olds wanted to Remain, so clearly your views were not well represented by the general voting population. Interestingly though, 16 and 17 year olds polled similarly to 18-24 year olds - 75% of whom voted Remain (YouGov after the vote), so broadly in line with your closest peers.

Scotland lowered the voting age to 16 in 2014 for the independence vote, and are now extending it for all elections. With the current sweeping political change in the UK we feel that the time is right to follow their lead, and to push to get the UK parliament to adopt this progressive position.

So with that in mind, we would like to identify driven members of the TSR community who would like to get involved in researching, refining our position, and campaigning for this change, with the support of TSR to assist with political contacts, public relations and lobbying. We will consider whether to go this alone, or to join up with other organisations.

As TSR is used by 75% of the 16-24 population, and gets 8.5 million visits to our websites each month, we are often approached, and listened to, by the political establishment as well as other media, and we feel it is right to use this position to help drive through a change we feel so passionately about.

If this is a cause that you feel strongly that you would like to help with, then post your interest in here, and we will get a private forum set-up to start discussing the best route forwards.

We want to do our bit to ensure your voice is heard. We hope you do too, and will join us in making this happen.

We understand their will be differences of opinion on this subject, and that's fine too.

Thanks

Chris

Absolutely 100% against it. I dont even believe 18 year olds should be able to vote due to a lack of experience and understanding of how the world works. Just look at the great majority of Bernie supporters: College/University educated people with very little understanding of politics and economics - despite their education.

I know this is not possible, but around 30 seems a good age to make an educated vote.

Also, whats next, 12 year old vote?

If anything the voting age should be raised to 21, not lowered to 16.

== We believe 16 and 17 year olds deserve to be heard in elections. If you agree and would like to get involved in researching our approach and then campaigning for change, please get in touch==

Having worked at The Student Room for 10 years, and as a College Governor at Brighton and Hove Sixth Form College, I've been overwhelmed by the number of highly engaged young students having really well informed debates on key political issues. This is sometimes more than can be said for much of the adult population.

As you turn 16 and 17 you gain the rights to get married, have children, join the army, drive, fly planes, as well as the to go to adult prison. As young people, you will also have to live with the consequences of political decisions for longer than any of the rest of us. To me it feels like a relic from the past that your voice is excluded from important political decisions. You have a right for your opinions to be listened to at the highest levels, and on the most important issues.

During the EU referendum our polls showed that 82% of 16 and 17 year olds wanted to Remain, so clearly your views were not well represented by the general voting population. Interestingly though, 16 and 17 year olds polled similarly to 18-24 year olds - 75% of whom voted Remain (YouGov after the vote), so broadly in line with your closest peers.

Scotland lowered the voting age to 16 in 2014 for the independence vote, and are now extending it for all elections. With the current sweeping political change in the UK we feel that the time is right to follow their lead, and to push to get the UK parliament to adopt this progressive position.

So with that in mind, we would like to identify driven members of the TSR community who would like to get involved in researching, refining our position, and campaigning for this change, with the support of TSR to assist with political contacts, public relations and lobbying. We will consider whether to go this alone, or to join up with other organisations.

As TSR is used by 75% of the 16-24 population, and gets 8.5 million visits to our websites each month, we are often approached, and listened to, by the political establishment as well as other media, and we feel it is right to use this position to help drive through a change we feel so passionately about.

If this is a cause that you feel strongly that you would like to help with, then post your interest in here, and we will get a private forum set-up to start discussing the best route forwards.

We want to do our bit to ensure your voice is heard. We hope you do too, and will join us in making this happen.

We understand their will be differences of opinion on this subject, and that's fine too.

Thanks

Chris

Scotland lowered the voting age to 16 in 2014 for the independence vote, and are now extending it for all elections. With the current sweeping political change in the UK we feel that the time is right to follow their lead, and to push to get the UK parliament to adopt this progressive position.

Absolutely 100% against it. I dont even believe 18 year olds should be able to vote due to a lack of experience and understanding of how the world works. Just look at the great majority of Bernie supporters: College/University educated people with very little understanding of politics and economics - despite their education.

I know this is not possible, but around 30 seems a good age to make an educated vote.

Also, whats next, 12 year old vote?

Speaking as a 17 year old, you're all forgetting that we attend school; politics lessons could be made compulsary.

Saying we're uneducated and that we shouldn't get the vote isn't really going to solve any problems. When do you become politically educated? Do you, on your 18th birthday, have an epiphany in which you magically form political opinions and become "educated"? Absolutely not! I'm actually sick of people who are older than me dismissing "my generation" for being "uneducated" and doing nothing about it. Educate us.

Who's going to regulate what the teachers do in these classes? I'd say the children would be easily swayed.

We would be giving the vote to feotuses if people like you truly had your way. Your only advocating giving the vote to 16 year olds because you know they will vote in a certain manner.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Absolutely 100% against it. I dont even believe 18 year olds should be able to vote due to a lack of experience and understanding of how the world works. Just look at the great majority of Bernie supporters: College/University educated people with very little understanding of politics and economics - despite their education.

I know this is not possible, but around 30 seems a good age to make an educated vote.

Also, whats next, 12 year old vote?

I'm actually sick of people who are older than me dismissing "my generation" for being "uneducated"