18 to 16?
This last week the powers that be at Westminster have been discussing the possibility of lowering the voting age from the current 18 to 16.
Er, eh?
I’m sorry but I just don’t see such a move as sensible, in fact if it were up to me I’d be raising it back up to 21, or even better, 25.
Now I don’t have anything against young people, but in general you do have to say that they haven’t lived yet. They have little or no experience of “real life in the real world”. Certainly at 16 they will still, no doubt, be living at home with all the benefits of free housing, free food, no council tax and their parent(s) advising them on what they should or shouldn’t be doing.
I happen to think the same could be said for 18 year olds and most 21 year olds.
When people vote in local or national elections they are deciding, not only for themselves but for everyone else, what the next 4 to 5 years of “life in the real world” is going to be like. I would prefer it if they had at least some experience of what that life was like before being able to make those decisions.
