Labour wants votes for 16-year-olds.

[Workingman]

Starmer says "If you can work, if you can pay tax, if you can serve in your armed forces, then you ought to be able to vote,"

OK, so child actors, models etc. who go over the personal allowance have to pay tax. They can be any age from 1 upwards, should they get a vote? Anybody of any age can earn more than the personal allowance and have to pay tax - any age, should they get a vote? And you cannot do active service in the armed forces till age 18, so he is wrong again.

We currently have 22% of school leavers (age 16+) who are functionally illiterate and innumerate - barely at the level of an 11-year-old. Should they get a vote? And what about those who are older and with some form of dementia? Will we get an upper age limit or an IQ test?

The 'everybody gets to vote' idea is madness.

[TheOstrich]

Especially when you considerthat half the population probably can't be a**ed to vote, especially this time around .....

[Workingman]

It was his contention about work, tax and the forces that irked me. They are all wrong.

If people cannot be ar**d to vote that's up to them.

[cromwell]

The human brain isn't fully developed until the age of twenty five.
The voting age should be going up, not down.
Lord Starmer also wants to give the vote to foreigners.

[Kaz]

Don't they have this in Scotland? 16 is too young IMO

[medsec222]

If we go back quite a number of years the age a child became an adult was 21. It was then lowered to 18. Keir Starmer suggests votes at 16 because if someone is paying taxes they are entitled to vote - so presumably anyone reaching the age of 16 and working can then vote. Yet Gordon Brown made it mandatory for young people to remain at school until the age of 19 unless they were able to obtain employment before then. Consequent to that ruling, anyone paying child maintenance must continue to pay child maintenance until their child reaches the age of 19, sometimes even up to the age of 20 if they are still in college. By that calculation does it mean that someone aged 16 who is working is an adult, yet someone at college is considered a child until the age of 19 to 20.

[Suff]

Don't they have this in Scotland? 16 is too young IMO

Only for the Scottish government elections. Westminster is still 18.

However as the SNP are finding out, the 16-18 vote is highly volatile. Live by the meme, die by the meme.

What it does is provide a one time quick win scenario with the novelty. 16 year old don't do responsibility and once it is normal they will tend to ignore it. That being said they have not learned to be jaded with politicians and so can be bought. There is a whole new raft of innocents ready to dupe every couple of years.