16 and 17-year-olds to be able to vote in next general election as government says it will lower voting age in UK
www.bbc.co.uk
Lowering the voting age across the UK means around 1.5 million 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote at the next general election.
  • G4Z@feddit.ukEnglish
    33·
    4 days ago

    I’m in favour of this, however it’s only a fraction of what needs to be done to overhaul our voting system. We need to get rid of FPTP and reform the lords.

  • wewbull@feddit.ukEnglish
    273·
    4 days ago

    To me this is tinkering with the edges of a broken system. How about some proper voting reform?

      • Echo Dot@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        How about an actual referendum on whether or not we need a better system rather than “do you want this plaster putting on it?”

        Single transferable vote is not a solution to the first past the post problem. It’s literally the same system with a minor fix which won’t really result in any change since we effectively live in a two-party system anyway.

  • Destide@feddit.ukEnglish
    12·
    4 days ago

    If you can die for your country, you should be able to vote Edit: afterthought and more importantly, we’re happy to tax them too.

    • wewbull@feddit.ukEnglish
      2·
      4 days ago

      Weirdly, you can only die for your country with parental consent if you’re under 18.

      • ohulancutash@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        No, you can’t. Under-18s are banned from theatres of combat, as the UK has ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A few 17yo were accidentally deployed to Iraq, but sent home within 3 weeks.

  • thehatfox@lemmy.worldEnglish
    9·
    4 days ago

    This feels like a big shift for it actually to happen, but I think it’s the right decision overall.

    The idea that 16 legally a person can (with some caveats) live independently in their own home and raise a family, and pay all the relevant tax along the way, but not have their say in elections has always seemed incongruous to me. It’s the young who feel the political outcomes the longest after all.

    How many young people will actually turn out is another question politically though.

    • deadcatbounce@reddthat.comEnglish
      32·
      4 days ago

      Haha. They’re changing the voting age. Not your ability to have a tattoo, cigarettes or get married without your parents consent or hundreds of other things.

      It’s about keeping power. Not about helping you or me as citizens.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
      5·
      4 days ago

      Young people are becoming more right-leaning, but they still trend left/“left” IIRC. This shouldn’t be a boon to Farage, though it also won’t hurt him nearly as much as it would even a few years ago.

      • Womble@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        4 days ago

        Lots of people witter on about young men becoming right wing in the UK like we’re America, in reality young men were the second most left wing demographic after young women in the last election.

      • thehatfox@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        4 days ago

        Younger people still trend left, but they also may trend lefter than Labour. Which could mean more splitting of the overall vote and more unpredictability with our FPTP system.

      • ohulancutash@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        Anticipating the change, The Scum polled 16/17yo at the last election. Reform came 2nd behind Labour overall, but joint first amongst males. The Tories came last overall, with greens last among males.

  • 0x0@lemmy.zipEnglish
    61·
    4 days ago

    So those who voted on the right were mostly 16-18?
    Got it.

  • fire86743@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    1·
    4 days ago

    This is a good thing, I think other countries should follow if they haven’t already.

    Like, they aren’t lowering the age of consent, just the voting age. I think 16 year olds are more capable of voting responsibly than people think.

  • Flax@feddit.ukEnglish
    43·
    4 days ago

    I don’t think there should be a voting age at all. Also think that prisoners should be entitled to vote.

    Basically, I think everyone who is a British, Irish or Commonwealth citizen living in the UK should be able to vote.

    I wouldn’t be too opposed to other nationalities with Indefinite Leave to Remain voting either. Especially for council elections.

      • Flax@feddit.ukEnglish
        2·
        3 days ago

        If a toddler is capable of being registered to vote, going into a polling station, marking a ballot according to their own free will and putting it into the box, then they should be able to vote.

        Also, free sweeties and later bedtimes are better manifesto promises than making the rich richer and the poor poorer

  • deadcatbounce@reddthat.comEnglish
    313·
    4 days ago

    Not lowering the age to have cigarettes, or tattoos or get married without parents consent or driving or an enormous long list of other things. Those things the politicians don’t trust to kids.

    It’s purely about making sure children indoctrinated by the woke globalist teachers in schools since 1997 guarantee a leftist government remains in power.

    Scotland has lowered the voting age to 16 similarly but they haven’t lowered the age for anything else.

    It’s about power nothing else, not about the people.