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"If 16 years old get the vote, than that's it , Im gone."

[URL]http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/frontpage/4511267.stm[/URL]

What was your goal when you were 16? If you were anything like me, it was to get drunk, laid, stoned, play football, watch porn, and all the other things I never did. Having the chance to help sway a general election never crossed my mind. Obviously it's important for people of that age to be aware of how important politics is, but 16 is far too young to have enough of a grasp on the economical and social implications of an electoral system.

What's more, society has gone rapidly downhill in the last few years. I think the town I live in is the perfect place to see where things have gone wrong. Eight years ago I would have been 16, and I was polite to people. All my mates were (and mostly still are) polite people, and everyone I knew was capable of being decent in some way, even if it was never all sunshine and lollipops. This includes all years above and below me at the scum-bucket school I went to.

On the bus the other day I saw a group of 'young adults' playing with a dead rat on a stick. It made me laugh at the time, but when you think about it, that's not funny. Someone, somewhere, wants to give people like them the right to vote. I argue they should be impaled on sticks instead, then eaten by rats. Of course, they could grow up to be worthwhile members of the Human race, but that's my point - when they grow up. How would you like to find yourself standing in the queue to vote, next to the Hooded Ratpack?

But you turn an adult somewhere between two elections (or most people do!)

So you have to live the first couple of years (average) without having had a say in the government at the time.

But, anyone who is an adult when the next government is decided WILL be able to vote anyway...

You could argue that if 18 year olds should vote, 14 year olds should vote too - assuming the next election is in just over 4 years, they'll have to live under that government as adult citizens at some point, they should have had an opportunity for democratic input too.

Not that any of them should actually bother to vote ;^)

I think if you pay taxes you should have a say in the way that you are governed. I think it's only fair. To be honest it's not fair to have to pay taxes but not have any say in how they are used and how much you pay, is it?

At 16, if you aren't interested enough to vote for someone you want in power, not just 'fer tha' banter', you won't vote at all. If you are at me, and you free range poultry farm up the road where you can watch hot, sticky chicks getting laid simultaneously anytime and still maintain an interest in politics, you wuld ensure that your vote counted for the right people.

If sixteen years old vote.... ohh no forgot.

when I was sixteen all I care about was how to became famous.

How come when you're 16 you can have sex but can't buy porn?

I know pleanty of idiots who are old enough to vote. They are more imature than some 16 year olds I know. There is athis stupid t*at in uni in his 20's who still goes to Pokemon card tournaments. I'd rather trust the kids with a rat on a stick than him. There are some 16 years olds who are smart enough to have a good say, and the stupid ones would either forget to vote or vote the same as their parents or whatever, so it wouldnt really matter I dont think.

Think I'm with Strafio on this one. Idiots are idiots, but people who genuinely want to think are thinking already. Will they make the right choice? Who knows, but at least they're getting a good idea.

I do wonder about how much responsibility is thrown on kids though. But it's the 'choice' to vote. For every spakchild who's showing his mate his new ring tone, there's.. ok, possibly 0.2 of a child who's seriously thinking, searching, and trying to find an answer, and a solution. You can be married, have children, er.. play the lottery.. and yet you don't have a say in how the country is run?

I'd love to believe as soon as all kids reach 18 then suddenly they make the 'right' choice, know what they want, understand the changes and how it'll affect them. But.. nope, most are still morons I think.

For every asshat that votes Labour because it's what everyone else does, I'm sure there'll be another one that votes Lib Dems because they want to decriminlise cannabis. Both aren't exactly great reasons, but I just don't think it'll affect the outcome that much at all.