Do people actually see this as a good thing?
For me it’s just messing with the edges of a broken system.
I think it’s a good thing yeah. 16 year olds can join the military and pay taxes if they work, so they should have a choice in what government to elect.
I see it as 16 year olds are the most easiest to manipulate on social media, and that this does not bode well for progressive politics.
At the same time, what’s the actual peak age of “can’t be manipulated on social media”, and as blacknight says below - if they can work and die for our country at that age, they might as well be allowed to vote
Boomers: am i a joke to you?
yes, but also fuck no and please don’t vote with your feelings
From 16 a British person can bear much of the responsibility of an adult (with some caveats) but receives none of the political rights in return. That’s always seemed incongruous to me, that someone can say, start a family, but have no say over their future.
It certainly seems much bigger change than messing with the edges, I don’t think any extension of the franchise could be seen as minor.
It think it’s an important step in the right direction, but yes we do need to go a lot further in other ways also.
Don’t let perfection get in the way of progress.
We know the system is broken, but the people with the power to fix it have no interest in fixing it. At least they’re improving it in some way, makes a change from the usual “and then it got worse”.
It’s an odd issue for me. I’m not against it, but the number of politically aware 16yos I’ve met would be close to zero. That said, I don’t think it really gets better by 18, so I have no good argument either way.
It just doesn’t strike me as anything but an attempt to gerrymander along demographic lines and so I view it with cynicism.
How many 16 year olds have you met? The volume of politically aware adults I’ve met over the decades is genuinely disgusting…
I was the politically aware 16 year old thinking the war on terror and invasion of Iraq was the natural progression of western corporate imperialism.
I would say I’m wiser now at twice the age, but I and most of my class at school had fairly reasonable political views from my recollection; maybe a bit naive and simplistic in a few cases, and a little bit of groupthink going on, and at least one die hard communist (though I imagine he still is, so I doubt that affects much either way).
16yo is old enough to do pretty much all the other big decisions of an adult, so why not voting, they’re not really treated like children anymore by our society.
If it lowers the average age in the parliament, that would probably be a good thing, even if the UK is not the worst from what I can see.
In the UK the average age is around 50 according to: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/house-of-commons-trends-the-age-of-mps/
Compared to the US where the senate is a bunch of pensioners average of 64, and the house is 57: https://fiscalnote.com/blog/how-old-118th-congress
Messing at the edges of the broken system is a good thing. Not as good as fixing things properly. Still a good thing.
Ah, a good start. Next time implement some sort of PR. Maybe reversing the Tories’ change to FPTP for the Mayoral elections before the next general election too.
Good news! Reversing the mayoral and PC changes were just in the news last week! https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jul/10/ministers-propose-voting-changes-for-mayoral-elections-in-devolution-bill
Seeing as they are following in the footsteps of the Welsh voting reforms with this news, I would hope that if all goes well then they will follow with the PR changes too. Although looking polling at how Labour are expected to fare in the Sennedd, maybe they will consider it not in their interests.
Oh wow, I’d missed that, thanks! With acknowledgement that this favoured the Tories it’s only a small step for them to realise it’ll favour them at a national level too… we can hope…
I believe they have already done that for the mayors.
If we’re talking electoral and political reforms I have suggestion(s), please feel free to discuss in the thread below.
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Change from electing a single MP to a team of two. One remains in the constituency holding regular surgerys for constituents to attend that are open from 2pm to 8pm so working people can still book appointments. The other goes to Westminster. Have them rotate so each person spends half their time in Westminster and half in the constituency.
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A federated civic social network. Twitter naturally gravitating to being the “online townhall” was a disaster even before musk bought it. What is needed is each region to have a civic social network that are federated at the country level because expecting a private company to regulate what is allowed in public speech in an online public space will lead to conflicts of interest. This would allow communities to organise events, have a digital notice board, give news updates from local authorities, and have digital town halls where everyone behaves in a civil manner as sign-up requires registration with government ID and use of full government name.
It wouldn’t be a blog platform like twitter but governments need to invest in cyberspaces or they’ll all be run by corporations that gives them unreasonable amounts of power to control discussions.
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Interesting choice as the brain is not fully developed til 25… They also lack life experiences, not to state the obvious or anything
The “not developed until 25” is a myth. The famous study looking at frontal lobe development had age brackets up to 25 years old, non-scientific people took that to mean “that must be where the brain stops developing”.
Later research shows it continuously develops.
Yet 18 year olds pay taxes.
Hell, even children pay sales tax.
I know we aren’t talking about the US but no taxation without representation is a bar in a lot of societies
Has never been a “bar”.
Only a rallying call. And given it excludes many on benefits/unemployed etc. These are people with the most experienced of how society works when things fail. In this modern age. It is far from an inclusive call.
That said. Age has always been more about experience and education. Today’s 16 yo is way more educated in world events. Then any 1800s adult. And more so then even in the 80s when I was 16.
The internet leads to some negatives. But things are Def different now.
