I have to be honest, I didn’t know too much about Ed Miliband apart from the obvious when I joined the Labour party back in May. But one thing I did know was that he was in support of lowering the voting age to 16.
Ever since the BBC3 programme ’16: Too young to vote’ with former EastEnders actress Melissa Suffield, the issue of being able to vote at 16 has been something I’ve found very interesting.
After all at 16, one can get married, begin full time work, leave home and join the armed forces. Strangely enough one can even fly a glider. So why can’t you vote? To me it doesn’t make much sense.
Politics affects young people as much as anyone. With the cutting of the Future Jobs Fund and, of course, the rise in tuition fees, people between the ages of 16 and 18 have never been more in the political spotlight.
This Wednesday 19 January, politicians will also debate and vote over the proposed scrapping of education maintenance allowance. The small weekly sum of money helps students to stay in education and helps them to afford such things like books and stationary.
By depriving people of this age the chance to vote, you are not allowing them to have a say on important matters like EMA, which will ultimately affect their future opportunities in life. I imagine if young people were given a say that the majority would not be in favour of scrapping EMA.
Generally speaking, people in the 16 to 18 age bracket would seem to care about the same kind of issues: jobs, university education and the environment being just some examples of this. So for me, there isn’t too much difference between someone who is 16 and someone who is 18 anyway.
I accept with the economic situation, lowering the voting age is not going to be the most important thing on the minds of politicians. However, it is an issue that must not be left to one side and just forgotten, particularly by Ed Miliband and the Labour party.
Since the Liberal Democrats’ decision to go into coalition with the Conservatives, young people have felt very let down, particularly on the issue of tuition fees, which they promised they would not raise.
During the recent student protests, many of those involved were in fact 16-17-year-olds studying for their A levels and hoping to go onto university.
With the Liberal Democrat betrayal, many young people have turned to Labour and its new leader. For me it’s in the party’s interest and in the interest of Ed Miliband to campaign for a lower voting age.
Lowering the voting age would give someone who is 16, a real voice against something like the issue of scrapping of EMA or the rise in tuition fees.
By seriously campaigning for this, it could bring a new influx of supporters to the party. But more importantly it would show the Labour party as once again the only progressive and far-reaching political party.