Votes_at_16

John Bendo Word Count: 994 Should the voting age be lowered to 16' United Kingdom, a country which prides itself on democracy is depriving 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote for who runs their country. Is this really democratic' The voting age is the minimum age a person is held eligible to vote in a public election. Currently the voting age is 18 but should it be reduced to 16' The right to participate in an election is a basic human right; it gives every member in society the right to vote on which political party run the country. A century ago the UK and almost every other democratic country denied woman the right to vote, which showed that women took a backseat in the political arena. However now that is not a problem and all democracy lead countries accept all adult citizens as eligible voters. In Scotland you are officially classed as an adult at 16, under the Scotland's Age of Legal Capacity Act 1991. Given that 16 and 17 year olds are of legal responsibility they should be given the same rights as every other adult citizen in the UK. At 16 you are given the rights to join the Armed forces. According to the votes at 16 coalition on April 1 2007, there were 4560, 16 and 17 year olds serving in the armed forces and 18 of the young people have been deployed, 15 of which have been sent to Iraq. It is government policy that a person under 18 is not to be deployed into a situation which would see them engaged in hostilities. Young people in the armed forces should be given the right to vote for a party that has their every need for doing their jobs included in their policies. "No taxation without representation." The slogan was coined by Reverend Jonathan Mayhew back in 1750 which quite rightly said people should not have taxes imposed on them without their consent. So whether you work full time or part time, all money earned is taxable including job seekers allowance. Recent figures show that 548000 of 16 and 17 year olds are in some form of employment and are therefore charged tax on their earnings. The Department of Work and Pensions showed that in the past decade the total ax liability for people under 18 was over £550 million pounds. So the "No taxation without representation" also applies to young people paying tax. So the UK government will take the money but will not let young people vote on who gets the money. Preventing 16 and 17 year olds the right to vote is giving the impression that young people are not good enough. It's not that young people are not interested in politics its quite simply politics is not interested in young people. Disengaging young people from the politic process is limiting the num,ber of the future votes. So the longer politics does not engage 16 and 17 year olds then the less chance of them ever being involved in the decisions that help our country run. 81% of 12 - 16 year olds believe that they should be given the opportunity to express their opinions of politics. The young people want it so why can't they have it' Some people are concerned that lowering the voting age would decrease the voter turnout in elections, but that has shown not to be the case. In Germany where the voting age was lowered to 16 they have seen an increased turnout in the number of voters age 16-18 than voters aged between 18-24. Similar results were shown here in Edinburgh where there was a record turnout for the Scottish Youth Parliament elections which saw 5019 young people aged 14-25 vote for the elected 11 members in September 2009. This clearly shows that young people want to have an influence on the decisions and policies been made about them and their country. For the past two decades there has been continual support for lowering the voting age by MP's. The campaign is backed by leading political parties like the Liberal Democracts and Scottish National Party also in recent years the Labour and Conservative Party have backed the campaign in political debates. In 2005 MP Stephan Williams put forward his own private members bill on lowering the voting age to 16. However it was defeated in the House of Commons by just 8 votes with 128 Members of Parliament voting in favour for the bill. Also during the 2010 General Election Campaigns the Labour party stated they would give each MP a free vote on lowering the voting age but sadly they were not elected. Surely the fact that our generation of voters are for the first time better educated on our democracy than any other generation giving them the greater knowledge of making the choice on picking someone to run our country. In 2002, democracy and citizenship education was made compulsory in the English National Curriculum. They are taught on the importance in taking part of the democratic and electoral process and the importance on decision making, all this education is deemed useless as young people can't use the valuable knowledge they have been taught for at least another 2 years after they can officially leave school at 16. Obviolousy this was made compulsory for a reason, so use it well. So to answer my initial question, should the voting age be lowered to 16 for all UK elections' Well it would be down right ludicrous for it not ot be done. If the UK government can allow a 16 year old to make the decision to leave school and home, have a family, get married and fight for our country then surely they should have the god damn right to vote for who runs our country. As a member of the Scottish Young Parliament, I am fully aware of the responsibilities of having the right to vote and believe that we are decision makers of the future. When the Electoral Commission last consulted the public about lowering the voting age to 16 and 17 year olds, 72% were in support. What’s stopping Parliament ending this injustice' It's time for change and that time is now.