Off Topic Politics Thread
- Thread starter ChilcoSaint
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So we must not assume how youngsters may vote but it is OK to assume anyone of 75 votes Tory and voted for Brexit. I think that is called bigotry.
I’ve had this discussion with several people in my age group (boomers) and they made the same argument as you are making.
They too, like me, get annoyed at being included in that group of Tory voting Brexiters but the facts are the facts and the majority of our age group are Tory voters and supporters of Brexit.
It’s a sad reality.
I think it goes back to what James O’Brien calls “footballification”. Most (but not all) people over, say, the age of 30, have chosen their “side” in politics and stick to it through thick and thin. Obviously Reform have upset this particular apple cart, but like the SDP in the 1980’s, they are a (hopefully) temporary blip and will be found out as their complete lack of any meaningful policy is exposed.
Younger voters are less set in their ways and may be more flexible than the rest of us. I do worry that the constant pressure from social media might affect them more than older voters but then they probably don’t read the Mail and the Sun.
It’s called demographics, and is supported by mountains of data.
Baby boomers, of which I’m one, had the best of everything, are generally ungrateful, and many now want to deny their grandchildren the enormous privileges they enjoyed.
I'm threescore and fifteen, I've never voted or considered voting tory, tactically voted lib dem in Henley and Thame ward to help seal the first tory defeat in more than a century.
Boomers are to blame for everything. That's the go to these days
I know y'all don't like Spiked but there is a relevant article on there from a member of the green party in Hungary:
We need to stand up for old people
Western liberals are constantly demonising the elderly as brakes on ‘progress’.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/07/17/the-war-on-the-old/
We need to stand up for old people
Western liberals are constantly demonising the elderly as brakes on ‘progress’.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/07/17/the-war-on-the-old/
Indeed! The age of marriage even with parental consent was raised to 18 only recently in 2023........."to protect children!" and supported by all parties!
It is not the elderly as individuals but the elderly as a mass that are problematic. The elderly quite rightly claim they worked hard all their lives and deserve to be supported. But they stopped at 60/65 while we now have to work to 68. They bought homes at 4-5 times their wage and we are now paying 8x our wage. They are sitting in large property they don’t need while young people spend 60% of salary on a rent that prevents their ever joining the ladder. They are a backward thinking voting block, that votes based on nostalgia- and without the over 50s the Tory party would not have a single seat in parliament. They complain about immigrants but it the old who clog up the NHS.
That is the mass of the old. Doesn’t mean we don’t love our own oldies.
16 seems fine to me, it is the age you conclude basic education, you become eligible to pay tax if you earn which is a big factor for me, no British citizen should be eligible for tax without being eligible to vote.
It is their future and they are the most susceptible to the long term effects of government decision making.
They might still be mentally developing but while we have an increasingly ageing population experiencing cognitive decline and retaining the vote I don't think this is fair to use against them. (An elderly person who lacks mental capacity can have a proxy vote completed for them by a power of attorney and there is nothing to stop a person in this situation from voting in accordance with their own wishes rather than the perceived wishes of the person lacking capacity).
So overall allowing a 16 year old a vote seems fair and balanced when considering the picture of the British electorate as a whole.
It is their future and they are the most susceptible to the long term effects of government decision making.
They might still be mentally developing but while we have an increasingly ageing population experiencing cognitive decline and retaining the vote I don't think this is fair to use against them. (An elderly person who lacks mental capacity can have a proxy vote completed for them by a power of attorney and there is nothing to stop a person in this situation from voting in accordance with their own wishes rather than the perceived wishes of the person lacking capacity).
So overall allowing a 16 year old a vote seems fair and balanced when considering the picture of the British electorate as a whole.
"So instead of damning the elderly as ignorant bigots, unfamiliar with the latest developments in transgender jargon, young people could do with tapping into that deeper well of knowledge. By actually talking and listening to old people, the young might even learn something."
You can work part time, and therefore eligible for taxation, in this country from the age of 14. So using your criteria, you would both be ok with 14yr olds getting the vote?
14 year olds can only work 12 hours a week during term time and 25 hours a week during school holidays on less than the minimum wage so are very unlikely to exceed the personal allowance of £12,570 per annum required to pay tax. They are not required to pay national insurance either.
Also a 16 year old can join the military and serve his country and get killed (a friend of mine did in Nothern Ireland) an under 16 year old can't.
I think the taxation issue is the stumbling block to allowing 14 year old to vote. Quite shocked to think that you might be liable to tax when working as a teenager.
I think that there is a broader issue here. Should you lose to right to vote of you are not paying tax ? That strikes me as fundamentally wrong.
In my opinion we need to be engaging more people in politics and we probably need more changes to get more people on the electoral roll. The government apparently rejected the option of opening up votes to Immigrants. I think this could be more vexatious. If you work in uk and pay tax, why should you not have a say in how the money is spent. I feel this is something that should be addressed but maybe after you have indefinite leave to remain. Not sure how far the current voting rights extend but I think it would not be unreasonable to offer out the right to vote.
Bit picky when my criteria was;
1. Completed basic education, which a 14 year old won't have unless they have been elevated 2 years in school.
2. The odds of a 14 year old earning above the tax free allowance must be borderline impossible, there is no minimum wage at 14 and the hours and times a 14 year old can work are heavily restricted.
3. Also just to add you can't pay NI until you are 16 either.
16 is where I think it is acceptable, not younger.
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I fundamentally disagree with this. The main criteria to vote should be that you are a British Citizen not your tax status. Once the immigrants obtain that, then they can vote. Just working in the UK and paying tax shouldn’t give you any extra rights.