16, The Magic Number

This is the forgotten cause. For many individuals, for two years, this is a concern. Once the individual turns 18 it is merely an annoyance of the past. Why can't 16 year olds vote?

16 year olds can legally:

• Get married or register a civil partnership (with parental consent)
• Have sex with others over the age of 16
• Buy a lottery ticket
• Leave home (with parental consent)
• Work full time
• Leave school
• Change name by deed poll
• Drive a moped
• Drink alcohol with a meal if accompanied by someone aged at least 18
• Join the Armed Forces (parental consent) 

17 year olds can also legally:

• Donate blood
• Serve in the Armed Forces

Today, an ongoing poll by the Guardian on whether 16 year olds should be allowed to vote is currently at 53% Yes and 47% No. Bear in mind that the Guardian is left wing, and this vote of their readers isn't representative of the nation's views, this makes it all the more surprising that the 'No' percentage is as high as 47%. Is this because it doesn't really matter to people once they have passed 18? Because, really, the wages of 16 year olds are taxed, and the wages left over are spent in shops, also paying tax, yet 16 year olds aren't allowed an input into how their taxes are spent?

This is Trotsky reincarnated, infiltrating the Labour party and all 16-17 year olds like a communist parascite

!

The comments on the poll are really quite disheartening, showing a fear that, if young people were to vote, they would all vote Labour. Well, if Labour is best for young people then what's so wrong with that? This is hardly a Red Scare, voting Labour isn't like voting for the Commis during the Cold War! The concept of the Nation cannot be subjective. The nation includes everyone, even the ones who disagree with your own stale, dried up politics. It seems we are afraid of ideology and leave it to the already studying university students to fight the battles of the future ones, who develop a sense of complacency since they already have their place at University and don't have to pay the tripled fees.

A very smug friend of mine likes to point out that he got paid to study his degree, and was also able to sign on and receive housing benefit back in the day.

I remember being sixteen. It wasn't all that long ago. I travelled 20 minutes on the train to get to college and secure my A Levels. I worked part time and received EMA. Everything I bought with my wages was taxed, everything I earned was taxed, yet that tax has now been taken from those just a few years younger than me, and no one is defending their chances. So yes, 16 year olds may not be educated and informed on which party to vote for- but neither are the majority of adults who vote now. Hell, you're lucky if even an adult who has the right votes, even though their are plenty of 16 and 17 year olds who are chomping at the bit to have their interests met.