The UK voting age, the age at which someone can vote for the first time, is set at 18. This excludes a whole age group of politically literate individuals; 16-17 year olds. We believe the voting age should be lowered to 16 across the UK for all elections.

Citizenship lessons, the Internet and modern media. Politics has been reaching out to a younger generation in countless ways. They did it! But they haven’t adapted to this change. Society has moved on but the electorate has fallen behind.

Today’s youth are more politically aware than ever before. We have the right to be able to voice the opinions we have formed as our political maturity has been increased by policies such as Citizenship lessons. The UN Convention on the Rights of a Child, Article 12, states  we have a right to have a say in decisions that effect us, as appropriate to our level of maturity. 

They want us to have a voice but don’t want us to use it. They suppress our political voices by not letting us vote!

The Arab spring allowed millions who had been denied the right to vote, to have the invaluable opportunity to have their voices heard. The UK government supported this. The present government has pledged £110 million to these ‘freed’ nations to, among other things, ‘encourage political participation’. Yet, the simple right to vote is being denied to a whole age group within the UK itself.

We struggle to see how the current political institution can say they want to increase ‘political participation’ when they deny the same thing to a whole group in their own country.

We need the government to lower the voting age! Just like the Arab world, it is time for an uprising! It is time 16-17 year olds stood up and called for their democratic rights!

Now is the time to do it!

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