MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Opinions?
Proposed by the Scottish Government for the 2014 referendum, opposed by the LibDem Scottish Secretary despite it being LibDem policy to reduce the voting age to 16 anyway.
I was "against" on the principle that most would be too immature to have an informed opinion. However, I'm now thinking that if you are old enough to pay tax and to be sent to war, you at least deserve an opinion on your government.
If you can get legally leave school, get married and have kids tn you're old enough to vote.
Judging by how "worldly" and aware some of the graduates that we get are, I'd [i]raise[/i] the voting age to 25!! 😉
17 year olds couldn't do any worse or be any more apathetic than the current voters!
+1 for toxicsoks
"...you're old enough to kill but you're too young for voting..."
My MiL is constantly telling us of the Country's problems...
... as drip fed through the Daily Mail
She's not particularly political, just a bit old, a little naiive, and believes everything that dreadful paper publishes
I'm sure that most 16-17 year olds are a damn site better informed and politically / media savvy
you're old enough to kill but you're too young for voting
Don't you have to be 18 to be sent on active service for the armed forces?
Judging how immature and pathetic politicians are, I'd allow 16 year olds to vote but only if we take it off anyone with any political aspirations.
Obviously that'd never happen so no, I'd never let them vote. Most people (men especially) are still lacking in sense at 25 never mind 18.
If you can get legally leave school, get married and have kids tn you're old enough to vote.
16 no wait 18, without consent, ah no wait 16 again.
18 is just fine don't think it's necessary to be any younger unless your desperate for votes for some reason.
I think lowering the voting age to 16 would be fair enough.
As has been mentioned already, people can leave school and get a job at this age so I think that's justification enough to entitle them to having their opinions recognised.
Drac - Moderator
18 is just fine don't think it's necessary to be any younger unless your desperate for votes for some reason.
😆
I was "against" on the principle that most would be too immature to have an informed opinion.
Applies to 90% of the population at least. I don't see why not, though presumably this is basically just because the opinion polls in that age group are very favourable to Salmond's cause. 🙂
theres no upper limit for voting is there?
if you're old enough to shag you're old enough to choose between which oily PR man you want for a PM
I think that age is still young enough to be allowed to vote. They can't still make decisions on their own by that time. And has no enough experience as well. They still need assistance from their parents on that age.
Don't you have to be 18 to be sent on active service for the armed forces?
Yep. No op tours until 18. Used to be 17.
grum - Member. I don't see why not, though presumably this is basically just because the opinion polls in that age group are very favourable to Salmond's cause.
Longstanding position actually - as it is for the Lib Dems
Too young @ 16 yr old to vote as they are easily manipulated.
Give them iPhone and they will jump off the cliff if you tell them to.
"I'm sure that most 16-17 year olds are a damn site better informed and politically / media savvy"? Really? "media savvy" as in totally believe what the media tell them and now in those 3 minute sound bites that pass for news between programs. I certainly don't think I was mature enough to make a reasoned vote until my mid 20's.
As said, someone has seen some polls that suggest that this age group will vote in favour. Totally forgetting that being stopped in the street and being asked an opinion doesn't equate to having to get off the sofa/turn off the games machine/walk to the polling station. Give it to 16 year olds I suspect you'd be lucky to get1% of them to turn up and vote.
IMHO
Give them iPhone and they will jump off the cliff if you tell them to.
There's an App for that.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stickman-cliff-diving/id375671896?mt=8
Someones got to vote.
I can't be bothered to anymore.
Grumpy old men in "all Britain's youth are stupid" shocker
Longstanding position actually - as it is for the Lib Dems
Probably because opinion polls have shown these age groups to be generally favourable to their politics.
taxation without representation is tyranny
thomthumb's right here.^^^
Why should young people be denied the vote?
It's their future, get them involved, encourage responsibility rather than dependance.
At that age, people are already making some serious life defining decisions. They're probablly more aware than the apathetic keyboard warriors that appear in middle age. Even if not, they have voices that deserve to be respected. Make the government represent its people.
Given that we are all living longer and longer, why do we need to reduce the voting age. Given that the drive is to get more and more U18 to stay at school or training, the number of taxpayers U18 must be quite small.
Keep it over 18. The only reason Salmond wants to lower the voting age is because most younger Scots are fiercely nationalistic but too immature to understand the true consequences of what they might vote for.
Through my uni course I know a lot of younger people and I'd say that they are a hell of a lot wiser than we were at that age. They work a lot harder too, most of them.
Clearly there's a lot of posters on here who don't spend much time around young people 😀
A decent level of political comprehension isn't bestowed simply with advancing years - good examples above with people attributing all sorts of motivations to the SNP for proposing this, despite TJ having pointed out that it's been in their manifesto for years. The bottom line is that if they're at a point where they're expected to contribute to society in other ways, they should be entitled to contribute to the decision making process.
Anything we can do to reverse the tendency towards an increasingly deferred entry into adulthood would be a good thing for Scotland in my considered and well-informed opinion...
Lower it, but add a compulsory multi-choice test to every voting form.
10 simple questions about the main policies of the party you have selected. If you don't get at least 6 right then your vote is discarded.
A decent level of political comprehension isn't bestowed simply with advancing years - good examples above with people attributing all sorts of motivations to the SNP for proposing this, despite TJ having pointed out that it's been in their manifesto for years.
It's been in their manifesto for years because that age group is more amenable to scottish independence - this is a fact born out by numerous polls over a number of years.
A trail of polls suggest the policy of independence is particularly popular among younger people with little attachment to the institutions of the British state.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/27/scotland-young-people-vote
Do you need me to look up the actual polls for you? I thought this was pretty well-known TBH.
Perhaps you need to work on your own political comprehension and develop a healthy sense of cynicism where politicians are involved. I was actually agreeing that the vote should be extended BTW - I am just realistic about the reasons it's being proposed.
GrahamS - Member
Lower it, but add a compulsory multi-choice test to every voting form.
10 simple questions about the main policies of the party you have selected. If you don't get at least 6 right then your vote is discarded.
You would probably invalidate half the population's votes. 😉
Plus, when have pre-election policy statements been maintained once in power? your test would be irrelevant.
The point of a democracy is one person, one vote. Why should there be any qualification to voting?
grum - Member
It's been in their manifesto for years because that age group is more amenable to scottish independence - this is a fact born out by numerous polls over a number of years.
Scottish LibDem Manifesto 2010:
Liberal Democrats will:
Give the right to vote from age 16.
Oh - and the Labour Party were supporting it before the last general election too.
So - we had/have a fairly broad spectrum of politicians supporting it. What do you reckon - good or bad?
You would probably invalidate half the population's votes.
Probably, but at least you'd be left with the votes from people who knew what they were actually voting for.
Plus, when have pre-election policy statements been maintained once in power?
If the public had to learn them for their vote to count then they'd be more aware of them being broken.
The point of a democracy is one person, one vote. Why should there be any qualification to voting?
Because too many people habitually vote for the same party that they've always voted for without any thought to the issues.
A misinformed vote is just as damaging to democracy as a missed vote.
I'd also like voting to be compulsory (as it is in some other countries) with a "None of the above" option for those that wish to abstain.
Oh - and the Labour Party were supporting it before the last general election too.So - we had/have a fairly broad spectrum of politicians supporting it. What do you reckon - good or bad?
Pretty sure opinion polls also suggest that younger voters tend to be more liberal/left-wing than the rest of the population. Where politicians' motivations are concerned I don't think it's possible to be too cynical TBH.
I already said I reckon it's a good idea anyway though.
However, I'm now thinking that if you are old enough to pay tax and to be sent to war, you at least deserve an opinion on your government.
This.
If politicians think it's a good idea I'm against it.
What was the question?