Lowering the voting age to 16

Rob Philpott

I've just read that David Cameron has ruled out lowering the voting age to 16 here in the UK, something which pleases me greatly. I heard about 71% of the <18 vote in the Scottish Referendum was for 'Yes', so clearly in the SNPs interest to include them. I wonder how many of these children even knew the role of a Central Bank. Any thoughts?

Regards, Rob Philpott.

Duncan Edwards Jones

Politics is the art of bribing the people with their own money. The less money people have the easier they are to bribe. Therefore reducing the voting age to 16 will increase the number of easily bribed voters.

ZurdoDev

Rob Philpott wrote:

Any thoughts?

My guess is the majority of adults don't even understand what they are voting for so I am not sure including youth would change things much. However, no way should 16 year olds be allowed to vote. :thumbsdown:

There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.

Richard Deeming

I like Frankie Boyle's idea of lowering the voting age to 2, since most two-year-olds know as much about politics as most adults. :)

"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined." - Homer

Lost User

Kids under 16 are idiots. On the other hand, so are most people anyway.

Lost User

harold aptroot wrote:

Kids under 16 are idiots.

What other age group of kids is there?

Slacker007

Rob Philpott wrote:

Any thoughts?

Although I live in the States, I don't think children should vote. I actually don't think citizens should vote until you are 25 or 30 years of age, but again, this is my opinion.

Rob Philpott wrote:

I wonder how many of these children even knew the role of a Central Bank.

Exactly to my point. I would wonder how many "adults" there knew the role of the C.B.

Lost User

I think it should be upped to about 55. That way people of that age would have lived long enough to have been screwed by both parties multiple times and would therefore be in a better position to decide who screws them the best.

Bergholt Stuttley Johnson

as the teaching profession is heavily populated by the left it makes sense to lower the age into the bracket where teacher have a big impact (at least for labour/Lib Dems) i.e. before the kids get into the real world and realise that what people say can work and what actually works in the real world are two vastly different things

You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.

Mike Hankey

I heard that if the voting age had been lowered they where going to start stocking the polls with Snicker Bars.

New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0 Beta Have you ever just looked at someone and knew the wheel was turning but the hamster was dead? Trying to understand the behavior of some people is like trying to smell the color 9. I'm not crazy, my reality is just different than yours!

Worried Brown Eyes

I heard somewhere (probably More or Less on R4) that this 71% was based on a sample size of... wait for it ... 14 (yes one four, fourteen) Regards, Stewart

Lost User

There are plenty of people in Britain well over 16 who don't know the role of a central bank, or many of the other things that they vote for or against.

PIEBALDconsult

Kids 16 to 30.

Bassam Abdul Baki

I loved that commercial[^].

Web - BM - RSS - Math - LinkedIn

Rage

People should not be allowed to vote.

~RaGE();

I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Entropy isn't what it used to.

Mike Hankey

Good eye, I had forgot all about that commercial.

New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.0 Beta Have you ever just looked at someone and knew the wheel was turning but the hamster was dead? Trying to understand the behavior of some people is like trying to smell the color 9. I'm not crazy, my reality is just different than yours!

Tim Carmichael

Regardless of the country, I think the minimum age to join the armed forces and defend the country should be at least the minimum age for voting. In never made sense to me that someone can join the armed forces with their parents permission, but not be able to vote. By the same token, I am totally fine with setting the minimum age for a drivers license to be the same as the age to join the armed forces and vote. Tim

Keith Barrow

Rob Philpott wrote:

I wonder how many of these children even knew the role of a Central Bank.

I think this misses the real point - most adults don't know what the Central Bank does, or pretty much about anything of any real importance. What is unique about the under 18s is that they've had ~10 years of Salmondonian education. 10 years of Scottish Nationalist education. Case in point, my brother in law arrived at our house for a visit. We gave my missus's nephew some paper and pencils to draw with. He drew nothing but Saltires. I asked him what he was drawing "The flag of the greatest country in the world"* piped the response. OK a bit of pride in one's own may not be a bad thing, but here is the real kicker though - he's Jordanian and so are his parents, they only moved to Scotland two years ago, as my brother in law works as a locum doctor up there. That is the effect of two years of Salmond's propaganda network - imagine what 10 years must achieve. This is the group Salmond managed to get Cameron to extend the franchise to.

Alberto Brandolini:

The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.

Rage

Have my 5 vote. And do not aks why, I don't know.

~RaGE();

I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Entropy isn't what it used to.

Rage

Exactly, everything should be the same minimum age. Then comes the question : what age ?

~RaGE();

I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus Entropy isn't what it used to.