I was born in the 80s, so I think a lot of 29 year olds would see be as decrepit :skull: Lucky for me I am immature as **** :laugh:

You're thinking more from an adult perspective, based on current feelings towards Starmer anyway.

Where as most teens throughout any generation tend to be Labour supporters.

I'll be honest.

I don't know how anyone takes Fox News seriously? I remember their coverage when I was a kid to do with Obama's racist Pastor that he knew when he was a kid.:joker:

They tried to demonize Obama over knowing him, which was utter lunacy.

Starmer pretending that people's taxes go into stuff that people want.

He really is learning from the Tories.

Exactly!

I can't believe 30's is being seen as old by some people.:laugh:

I will miss being in my 20's though, especially when it comes to fancying women.:laugh:

Because I'm young enough to still like early twenties women without being seen as a creepy weirdo for it by some people, but could also like women in my own age group and even older.:dance:

It's been good times.

nobody can predict politics these days, it can't be judged even on typical behaviour 5 years ago. The current government, just like all the rest from the previous 20+ years have been completely incompetent. Everyone knows it too, so given that, how can anyone possibly predict how it will be in 4 years time

…I don’t know, in some ways I think that it is absolutely predicable because it follows populist and social media etc…like an awful reality show set in Westminster…

To be fair to Starmer ( which really is hard for me to do currently), on this, this became Labour policy for to be included in last year's general election manifesto at least 2 years ago.
When according to the opinion polls Labour was on votes prediction of anything from 43% upwards.

It's a manifesto pledge and it should be done in my view.
I wholly support it.
I'd have loved to have the vote when I was 16.
Plus no way did I consider myself stupid at 16 either.
I also want to add personally that when I joined TIBB I was 18 madly interested in politics, plus you were 14, and I got far better conversation with you on political matters than some older than both of us at that time too.

Be interesting to see the turnout from 16/17 year olds in Wales and Scotland next year and who they vote for

I suppose the proportion of elderly people voting is increasing all the time through longer life expectancies so that will probably offset some of the impacts

…I think that it’s not just an increased volume of elderly voters, that people are living longer …but also that atm future generations are getting smaller/in terms of classroom sizes it’s become very noticible…because of the affordability of having children…but to me, that doesn’t seem to be a levelling thing to reduce the voting age to 16years because if there will be less and less younger generation voters anyway, in looking at statistics …trying to encourage current non voters would seem to be a better way but I’m not sure how that can be done tbh, how that can be successfully encouraged…

…if 16 year old were to have to vote, then I guess that it should be looked at that politics should be covered more at school …which would lead to an already crammed and struggling curriculum plus inevitable claims of influencing/leading etc with some schools/employees…

fundamental changes like this lead to many unforseen knock on effects. For example voting at 16 legitimately increases the expectations of 14 year olds to be considered adults . What will that lead to? It's shifting everything closer to breaking pont

I fear it could embolden certain groups and in general is stealing childhood from our youngsters

Absolutely. The whole school curriculum needs an overhaul really. They need to teach teenagers about skills and issues they will face in actual day to day life - finances, taxes, politics, psychology... not Algebra!

I don't think it will really. The logic behind this if you're old enough to pay taxes, join the Army and contribute to society in terms of the running of it, you should be able to vote.

…yeah, I totally agree with you in that life skills are not given enough curriculum time and that’s something that was the way when I was at school as a pupil, back in the day …sadly that’s something that I can’t see being properly addressed by any government to give any real change, though…I mean…the last thing that governments are aiming for is educated/enlightened/prepared citizens…perish the thought for them…

i absolutely agree. The average 16 year old still has a couple of years to prepare themselves for adulthood. Change the voting age and it pushes that pressure down the age range toward kids that just aren't able to cope. That makes those kids more vulnerable and more easily exploited. That has massive consequences to society

and of course it will the be the most vulnerable of that group who will suffer the most

No issue with a 12 year olds being thrust into national press for politically motivated reasons and giving speeches at far right rallies, but allowing 16 year olds to vote is "stealing their childhood" and making "vulnerable people suffer".... :skull: I am dead. This has to be a parody.

if you are mocking me for questioning what effect this has on 14 year olds, i'm not going to be impressed

My post isn't directed at you, though I don't agree with this having any impact of 14 year olds.

12 yr olds to dumb to write a speech, suddenly become mature enough to vote a mere 4 years later.

I’m 16, and I shouldn’t be given the vote
 

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is little more than cynical gerrymandering at a time when Reform are pulling ahead in the polls. That Labour has introduced the policy because it perceives most young people to be Left leaning, and it is therefore in the party’s political interests.

It’s hardly surprising when pupils are constantly subjected to unionised, socialist secondary school teachers – and the apparent Left-wing bias on social media. This, combined with the amount of online fake news that is shoved down the throats of people my age means most 16-year-olds don’t yet know how to think critically for themselves. They too often exist in hollow echo chambers and follow the herd, largely because alternative opinions have been silenced. Are they seriously ready to be unleashed at the ballot box?

If 16-year-olds aren’t permitted to stand as candidates then why should they be permitted to choose which candidate to vote for? I am not permitted to buy alcohol, marry or go to war without my parents’ permission. I cannot even buy a lottery ticket – yet I can pick a Prime Minister? It is incoherent.

When people do not understand politics they search for the clearest messaging, be it saving the planet or a return to what the Corbynistas oxymoronically describe as “luxury Communism”. It’s possible that, even under the leadership of Sir Ed Davey, the Liberal Democrats may have some appeal to younger voters. If this isn’t enough to convince that it’s probably best to leave voting to the grown ups, I don’t know what will be.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/202...iven-the-vote/

Her dad said on Twitter ChatGPT wrote the speech.