Votes for 16 year old children

My life has been pretty shite over the past couple of years so I have been a bit quiet which is why I haven’t posted for so long.

I have also tried my best to keep clear of Brexit as much as possible as I always thought it was going to be a dogs dinner. The Collins English dictionary describes a digs dinner as something that is messy or bungled. Seems I was right.

What has got me uptight again is the next election.

There are calls to give the vote to 16 and 17 year olds. I asked someone I know what they thought about this the other day. He is a teacher and teaches children from 11 to 18 and his opinion as he works with normal children is that whilst a few, and he emphasised a few, would be capable of sensible reasoning and would be able to make an informed judgement as to which party to vote for, most of them struggle to pick their nose let alone pick their MP.

The Conservatives don’t want the vote to be given to younger people as traditionally younger people tend to vote for the left and older people tend to vote for the right and for this same reason Labour do want 16 and 17 years olds to be able to vote. When my dad was younger he always voted Labour and was even a union rep, (or something similar), where he worked. As he got older though he changed his views and started to vote Conservative which perhaps illustrates this point.

Going back to the Collins dictionary the English definition of an adult is “having reached maturity; fully developed”. Well my friend tells me that most of the 16-18 year olds he teaches are far from mature and this can be seen in the infantile behaviour they display day after day. He tells me this is one of the things that has spoiled teaching for many people.

Another definition in the Collins dictionary for an adult is “a person who has attained the age of legal majority (18 years for most purposes)”. Looking at this then if we are to give votes to 16 year olds I would assume that if they are mature and sensible enough to vote then they are an adult. Great. I am all in favour of this then. At the same time though we must accept that if they are an adult then they can do everything else an adult can do. Some suggestions for this are;

• Buy fireworks (very important at the time of posting this)
• Buy a knife
• Buy cigs
• Buy alcohol AND go in a pub and drink
• Visit a casino
• Visit an adult show
• Join the army AND fight on the front line
• Have sex with anyone (not allowed with a person in a position of trust until they are 18)
• Be paid a better rate on the minimum wage
• Take part in jury service
• Buy porn
• Leave school at the end of Year 11
• 16 year olds driving
• Be forgotten by social services once they reach 16 as they are no longer a child
• Go to an adult prison

I’m sure there are more examples but these are just what I came up with in 10 minutes. If anyone wants to turn round and state that some of the above list need to apply to children, (and they do), then why is that child mature enough to make a reasoned and well thought through judgement as to voting for an MP but not one (or more) of the above list?

If Parliament are willing to grant all the above list to 16 year olds then I’m all in favour of them getting the vote but until such a time as this should happen then my own personal view would be that I am against it.