Lowering voting age to 16:

Personally I believe that the voting age should be lowered to 16. People at the age 16 can currently work, they can pay taxes, have a child and get married. They are allowed to join the armed service to serve their country, they be careers for a relative and they are legally allowed to have a sexual relationship. With all of these responsibilities they still cannot vote. 

People aged 16 and 17 are the generation that have to deal with the consequences of government policies for example tuition fees. They are not allowed to have a say in who runs their country and how it is run.

The bill for lowering the voting age has been passed by the House of Commons but not the House of Lords where the average age is 69. The conservative party also opposes the motion as young people don’t always vote for conservatives however the Scottish conservatives are pro having it lowered. All other parties support it. 

Those who oppose it say that the younger generation don’t know enough about politics to vote, however because of the digital age they are better informed then they would have been around 20 years ago. Additionally, at the age 18 people don’t automatically become informed. Brexit galvanised more people to become politically informed. In the brexitreferendum 75% of 18-24 year olds voted to remain and 60% of voters aged 50-64 voted to leave. 

An article in the Indepenent said that “had 16 and 17 year olds been allowed to vote, the UK would have awoken to an entirely different result on Friday morning”. A young respondent also said that “it is frustrating that for me as a 17-year-old to see decisions being made by people who will die within the next 15 years. The future belongs to us the youth.”It is interesting how in the Scottish referendum in 2014 young people were allowed a say in their future. 

At this time when we are celebrating 100 years of women having the vote don’t you think it is now time for young people to have a say in their future. These other countries have seen fit for young people to argentina, brazil bosniaSerbia etc..

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Personally I believe that the voting age should be lowered to 16. People at the age 16 can currently work, they can pay taxes, have a child and get married. They are allowed to join the armed service to serve their country, they be careers for a relative and they are legally allowed to have a sexual relationship. With all of these responsibilities they still cannot vote. 

People aged 16 and 17 are the generation that have to deal with the consequences of government policies for example tuition fees. They are not allowed to have a say in who runs their country and how it is run.

The bill for lowering the voting age has been passed by the House of Commons but not the House of Lords where the average age is 69. The conservative party also opposes the motion as young people don’t always vote for conservatives however the Scottish conservatives are pro having it lowered. All other parties support it. 

Those who oppose it say that the younger generation don’t know enough about politics to vote, however because of the digital age they are better informed then they would have been around 20 years ago. Additionally, at the age 18 people don’t automatically become informed. Brexit galvanised more people to become politically informed. In the brexitreferendum 75% of 18-24 year olds voted to remain and 60% of voters aged 50-64 voted to leave. 

An article in the Indepenent said that “had 16 and 17 year olds been allowed to vote, the UK would have awoken to an entirely different result on Friday morning”. A young respondent also said that “it is frustrating that for me as a 17-year-old to see decisions being made by people who will die within the next 15 years. The future belongs to us the youth.”It is interesting how in the Scottish referendum in 2014 young people were allowed a say in their future. 

At this time when we are celebrating 100 years of women having the vote don’t you think it is now time for young people to have a say in their future. These other countries have seen fit for young people to argentina, brazil bosniaSerbia etc..