Poll: Votes for 16-year-olds
Abby Tomlinson: The teenage founder of ‘Milifandom’ is a strong supporter of reducing the voting age.
David Cameron has said MPs will be able to vote on whether people aged 16 and 17 should be able to vote in the EU referendum.
Let’s have a poll on it now!
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Camoron would only be interested in this if his advisors had told him that it might be beneficial to Tory plans!
It affects them and will more so in later years so why not.
Yes, with the proviso independent truth about the EU is told the electorate and not the usual rubbish about bent bananas, straight cucumbers, and elfin safety which upon close inspection have stuff all to do with the EU.
And the fact that the finances have not been signed off for the last 25 years because the independent auditors can’t find where millions euro’s disappear off to. Or that we are governed by a committee called the commission which is not elected and is made up of political failures and nobodies. Or the huge amounts of money that are paid out to not only sitting MEP’s and their acolytes but tot he same people after they lose their jobs. Maybe a few words on the democratic deficit, indeed the way in which Greece the birthplace of democracy is being told what to do by a foreign government because they were stupid enough to accept the euro.
The DWP’s finances haven’t been signed off for many, many years either; let’s be fair.
I agree with you about the European Commission. Why is the EU governed by an undemocratic organisation like that?
i want straight bananas and bent cucumbers,blue tomatoes and yellow carrots or else i’m voting to leave the EU.
wonder how many will even be interested enough to bother voting anyway? at that age all they are interested in is the opposite sex, sex,make up, clothes, shoes n handbags for the girls. again opposite sex,sex,cars, and what mischief they can get up to next for the boys.oh n mobile phones obsessions. i have a grandaughter just coming up to 21 and only just showing signs of growing up and not being so obsessed with those things anymore. no real thoughts about politics appear to be in her head at all. or any of her friends that i can see.
I think you may be pleasantly surprised!
If you had listened to some of the youth debates during the Scottish referendum last year you would realise that these young adults really do want to be involved. Much of the reason they behave as you describe is that they are not taken seriously. In Scotland they took in the arguments from both sides and voted accordingly, without the party leanings that older voters cling to. As Mike says, I think you would be very surprised.
Most 16/17 year olds are very tech savvy, so those that are interested in politics (and there’s more than you think) are also able to see round the biased cr** pumped out by the right-wing press as well.
Yes but will they be able to understand the left wing crap pumped out by the eussr mandarins in brussels?
The EUSSR (right-wing term) mandarins who are supporting the extremely right-wing TTIP, with it’s corporation-supporting, worker-bashing ISDS?
I think you’re a little confused.
Well the national Socialist party was very right wing and they claimed to be socialists as well, the eussr works in the same way as the original ussr by having what is in essence a one party state and people are given the jobs not elected or being accountable to the electorate. The eussr is in favour of selling off the public services rather than nationalising I agree, in fact the rational outcome of this shenanigans in brussels can be seen if you watch the film Robocop.
my world is a very small one but of the 2/3 i do know, not one is interested in anything but superficial stuff.my son,daughter and myself have tried getting my granddaughter involved or even thinking about whats going on but its just self. i heard a couple of youngsters only in some debate or other. but i did not even know of youth debates in Glasgow.why would i? i live in north of England. i try to keep up but its impossible to follow everything. so sorry Glasgow isn’t exactly on my patch. maybe i would be surprised. would be even more surprised if the ones i know changed and got interested, and to be honest they are all on benefits.
With your apparent attitude to youth, it’s not surprising that those you know aren’t interested. Politics foisted on kids by family, usually only citing the policies of their own favoured party, is one of the biggest turn-offs to youth. If they are given something to seriously debate from all angles, and have a say in the result, the interest is there. I didn’t expect you to be interested in Glasgow, or even Scotland as a whole, but I doubt if kids in the north of England are really so different. Please give them a chance, instead of tarring them all with the same brush as your own few family and friends.
These Children, official designation, not young adults, are quite often still at school and one is forced to consider the input of schools in swaying the decision making process with this age group, whether it is by having faux elections in the school, a long standing occurrence, or the teachers pushing their own views in other ways. Should they have a vote, no they shouldn’t, they are more likely to be fooled by pro propaganda than people with more experience, although the vote to stay in in the 70’s funded entirely by the government managed to beat the private funded out vote simply by using the fear factor of lying that we would have no one to trade with if we came out, a similar lie is already being touted for any further referenda.
The official designation for someone aged between 14 and 17 is ‘young person’, in fact.
Your concerns about schools are interesting but by far the largest influence on a young person’s voting plans will be that person’s parents and the circumstances of their own family – of course it will. They respond to what affects them.
Your concerns about propaganda have a sound base – but then this would encourage you to try to ensure that no propaganda is released and the only information available to youngsters is good, solid – demonstrable – fact.
Actually if you want to be pedantic the actual legal designation for 14 to 17 year olds is juvenile.
No, it’s “young person” – as in the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. “Juvenile” covers anyone aged below 18 and is therefore different.
1933 Act has long since been superseded.
No – it’s still in force.
Well I suggest you inform the home office if that is the case, because they do not use the long since superseded 1933 descriptors, and you are considered a juvenile in legal terms until you are 18 when you officially become a young person, only reaching adulthood at age 21.
It’s as I said: Juvenile=Anybody up to 17. Young person=male or female aged 14-17. Adult=Anyone aged 18 or more.
Repeating a fallacy does not make it correct a young person is 18 to 21 there isn’t a an overlap of the terminology young person and juvenile.
You are right: Repeating a fallacy does not make it correct.
Please cease and desist.
OK. just for the record… it might interest you to know. neither i nor my kids father influenced my kids political leanings. we were never that interested in the years they were growing up. all our energies were spent on making ends meet, devising nutritious meals from nothing. trips out at weekends for next to nothing.teaching them their letters and numbers pre school and helping with homework./ being involved with school PTA and extra curricula events. being a family in other words. politics as i think ive said before were only on the agenda when we had to vote and we just followed what our dads voted for. times change, needs must be involved now. but it was my DAUGHTER who got me involved. and taking an interest. not the other way round. but shes in her mid forties not a child. others got her interested and i am pleased they did.my son is on the fringe of it all. not that bothered.so no. parents dont always teach their kids about politics, democracy in the home possibly but thats it.