The first 16 year olds in the UK to be given the vote were in Scotland whose SNP government was able to bring that in for the independence referendum in 2014. The polls indicated that younger voters were more persuaded of the merits of independence. It didn’t work, obviously, but neither did the world come to an end. Since then Wales has taken the same decision for their own local elections.
Yes, there are a lot of things 16 year olds can’t do in the UK but there have always been these age anomalies. Maybe revising some of those restrictions might be the way forward.
I tend to agree this will not necessarily help Labour at future elections - young people might vote Green, LibDem or even Reform, if current polls mean anything. But I don’t think it is fundamentally a step in the wrong direction. If there’s a proviso, it is that citizenship lessons need to become part of the national curriculum but that too could be contentious if such lessons get politicised by those doing the teaching. |