[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;43653449]I'm fairly sure he made the assumption that this thread about the Australian Labour Party.[/QUOTE]
Can't have read the OP pretty far then, it literally says both London and Ed Miliband in the first line.
Oh my god do they really want 16 year olds from my area of the UK voting?
Over half of them at least are racist chavs. YEEEAH BNP WOO
There are still plenty of idiot voters in every country but a voting age of 16 only means that now you have a lot more uneducated, idiot voters since they won't even be done with secondary school.
it's not going to change the game very much.
voting in the kind of political systems we have, have been so deified to the masses it's absurd.
well continue on with your non-issues i guess
Bad idea. A person can mature a lot between the ages of 16 + 18, since those are the years where they finally finish school and move into the real world.
Thinking back, I had some real stupid views when I was 16.
I'm 17 and I don't even know who my representative or senators are.
[QUOTE=Banhfunbags;43654792]I'm 17 and I don't even know who my representative or senators are.[/QUOTE]
There are probably a lot 27 year olds who could say the same and probably a lot of 16 year olds who are aware of their local representatives. There are many people who know nothing about politics at every age, luckily they tend not to vote.
How about, we lower the voting age AS LONG AS we actually educate people as to the parties? Literally all I learnt about politics at school was "Labour wants to raise taxes to help people, Conservatives want to lower taxes to let people help themselves, who even gives a fuck about the Liberal Democrats lol, what is any other party?". I've had to teach myself a whole shitton of stuff, and I still don't consider myself sufficiently educated to vote (although I will be voting in the next election since that's still a year away). 'Political education' is basically what the newspapers tell you, and I think that's disgusting considering how biased they all bloody are.
16 because then they can easily manipulate the younger developing minds to vote for them, that and they can relate with the same maturity level they display in the house of commons bickering like children.
[editline]24th January 2014[/editline]
what twat thought this would be a good idea? a sixteen year old has no clue on how the real world works they've barely just left education and are only just discovering the world outside school.
[QUOTE=Sgt-NiallR;43652847]The problem with that argument is that it assumes that 16 year olds [I]should[/I] be able to do all of those things. Raising the age for all of those things would solve that discrepancy just as well as lowering the voting age.
Personally, though, I've no idea if 16 year olds should vote. There's no point at which one could set the bar without it causing issues for someone.[/QUOTE]
You're assuming 16 years olds are even going to vote, I'm sure voter apathy is incredibly high for that age group and only those who know what they're talking about will vote.
16 is too young, we'd end up with UKIP or something
Is anybody opposed to having the voting age at 17 as opposed to 18?
Why not? The difference between a 17 year old and an 18 year old is largely trivial.
[QUOTE=Trunk Monkay;43652885]Go back to when you were 16 (which many of you still are) and look at your political ideals and some of the retarded decisions you had made. Do you really think the average 16 year old should be able to vote when they know fuck all about how a government works?[/QUOTE]
This is implying the average person knows jack shit about the government.
[QUOTE=Sobotnik;43655577]
Why not? The difference between a 17 year old and an 18 year old is largely trivial.[/QUOTE]
Not really. I can say I matured a lot in my final year of school. It's when you start thinking about your future, planning for it. You get along with the teachers more + have to say goodbye to some people you've known for most of your life because you're all going to different places in the world to work, go to uni etc.
17-18 was probably one of the most important transitions I've had in my life so far. It's when you really wise up and realize no one is going to hand you anything, so you need to plan and work hard if you want to make something of yourself.
[QUOTE=Duskin;43655664]Not really. I can say I matured a lot in my final year of school. It's when you start thinking about your future, planning for it. You get along with the teachers more + have to say goodbye to some people you've known for most of your life because you're all going to different places in the world to work, go to uni etc.
17-18 was probably one of the most important transitions I've had in my life so far. It's when you really wise up and realize no one is going to hand you anything, so you need to plan and work hard if you want to make something of yourself.[/QUOTE]
Just because you had that experience does not mean it happens to everyone. Also everything you said were just platitudes. Knowledge of economics and politics are what are required to make an informed vote not empty cliches about being a grownup.
I don't think even I have enough info on politics to vote let alone a 16 year old
If you're judging voting age on average political knowledge, you're gonna have to raise it to at least 25.
[QUOTE=Aidan_088;43656645]Just because you had that experience does not mean it happens to everyone. Also everything you said were just platitudes. Knowledge of economics and politics are what are required to make an informed vote not empty cliches about being a grownup.[/QUOTE]
I'm not saying people who are 18 even have any knowledge about politics. I was saying that If people who were 16 could vote, they'd put even less thought into it than 18 year olds.
They'd probably vote to pass a bunch of radical shit without thinking about the long term implications of their actions. I mean, these people can't even legally drink yet people want them to have the ability to vote?
[QUOTE=Duskin;43657725]I'm not saying people who are 18 even have any knowledge about politics. I was saying that If people who were 16 could vote, they'd put even less thought into it than 18 year olds.
They'd probably vote to pass a bunch of radical shit without thinking about the long term implications of their actions. I mean, these people can't even legally drink yet people want them to have the ability to vote?[/QUOTE]
Some might and some might not, there are probably a lot of 16 year olds who would put more thought into it than an 18 year old. Also I think you massively over-estimate the difference this will make. Most 18 year olds don't vote, so it's likely that most 16 year olds won't either. Even if they did all vote it wouldn't be enough to seriously impact politics. Even if we take the worst case scenario, all 16 year olds vote and vote for extremist parties like the BNP or the CPGB there would be no great impact on elections because the vast majority of the rest of us would still vote for either Labour or the Conservatives.
What will probably happen when 16 year olds are allowed to vote is that most of them won't and most of those that do will vote for either the Conservatives or Labour. Some might vote for an extremist party but it would just be a wasted vote, with the net-result being no different to if they had not voted at all.
There's a lot of adults who don't have a fucking clue who they're voting for, people who vote do tend to have [I]some[/I] idea of who they are voting for at least. I don't know about anyone else but I started getting interested in actual politics around that age so I don't see what everyone's problem is when it's younger people casting votes when they're most probably just going to vote on what their family votes for, or social class.
A teenager who actually went out to vote could probably figure out what party would benefit them the most, albeit for probably the wrong reasons.
[QUOTE=mcattack1092;43652852]If a 16-year-old is legally allowed to work and have to pay taxes on the money they earn from working then they should have the right to vote.[/QUOTE]
So much wrong with this.
Firstly, you have to earn a certain amount before you pay tax. Now to be fair, you do pay tax on other things apart from earnings, but where do you draw a line?
Anyone who pays VAT, so everyone? Plus you don't earn the minimum wage until you're 21, so raise the voting age?
18 seems reasonable, at least for now. Please don't fall into a poorly designed political shadow game.
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