You can help to fly a plane at 11. You can join the army, drive a tank and die for your country at 16, and then drive a car at 17. You can do all this before you even have the slightest say in who makes decisions that will affect you and your future.
Discussions have been ongoing for almost 13 years about the possibility of lowering the voting age in the UK to 16. I personally believe that if you can fight for your country then you should be able to vote.
I do understand the arguments against this suggestion however, such as immaturity, manipulation and the lack of interested voters. However, there a few of us out there who want to have a say in what goes on in their country, and are willing to take active participation in it, and most of the arguments are redundant.
There is no way of measuring somebody's maturity, and I have no doubt that a large number of 16 year olds are much more capable of voting than a number of current voters. This also stands for manipulation. All people are capable of being manipulated, and age has very little to do with it.
The argument of a lack of interest from 16 and 17 year olds is also invalid. If you don't want to vote, you don't have to, but that doesn't mean that others shouldn't have that right either. For hundreds of years people across the globe have fought for the right to vote, and the fact that people then can't be bothered to fill in a bit of paper is an insult to their memory.
Take for example the Tories and Lib Dems raising the student fees after they were elected in 2010. Nobody under the age of 18 had any say in them being elected, and their consequent legislation, but we all have to deal with the price.
I strongly believe that with democracy what it is, and the constant modernising of Political systems across the world, young people of 16 and over now have the right to vote in elections.
No comments:
Post a Comment