Labour to give 16-year-olds the vote if it wins an election: good or bad?
Why are the Tories wringing their hands about this?
I am massively against this. https://t.co/YWcG1eYG4w
— Kevin Edger (@KEdge23) September 16, 2023
Starmer’s plan for votes at 16 sparks furious backlash https://t.co/dil0pKOVrk via @mailplus
— Andrew Pierce (@toryboypierce) September 17, 2023
16-year-olds have been voting in polls in Scotland and Wales for a few years now, with no apparent societal degeneration.
This Writer tends to believe the Tories are worried that younger people, given the vote, will use it to keep Labour in power. But that’s based on an out-of-date understanding of Labour’s position on the political map.
When Labour was left-wing, and had policies that would have given people starting out in life a better chance for success, then 16- and 17-year-olds might have voted for that party. They would certainly have come out very strongly in support of Jeremy Corbyn’s version of that party.
But Keir Starmer has systematically ditched all of Mr Corbyn’s left-wing policies, turning a once-democratic Socialist party into a mirror-image of the Conservatives.
Teenagers – at least, those with any political nous at all – are therefore far more likely to cast around for other political organisations to support.
If the Tories have anything genuine to fear, it is that impressionable teens – those who don’t have any political savvy – will be fooled by a slogan into voting unexpectedly.
But wouldn’t that be poetic justice for the Tories, who have spent decades trying to train us to support three-word slogans rather than thinking for ourselves?
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My granddaughter was 16 at the time of the Brexit referendum. She was very bitter that she and her friends were denied the opportunity to vote on something that greatly affected their futures. She believes, and I tend to agree with her, that Remain would definitely have won if the 16 to 18 year-olds had been able to vote.
Yes, it was a time when teenagers had been energised by politics and wanted to be involved. I wonder if the current set of mid-teens feel the same way now.
Starmer wants to give them the vote but not any reason to vote.