The Dire State of British Politics

As a 16 year old, I do not yet have the right to vote; my voice cannot be heard and neither can the voices of over 1.5 million other 16-17 year olds. For now, we must make our voices heard in other ways. If these 1.5 million people had the vote available to them, this ‘coalition of chaos’ that is currently in power may not have had to have formed, putting the country in a far better position for the forthcoming Brexit negotiations. As a matter of fact, if these 16-17 year olds had access to the vote in the referendum, then the result may have differed from the one we see today.

It is near guaranteed that without cooperation within our government, we will not achieve a preferable Brexit result. At the moment we cannot even achieve cooperation within our own ruling coalition, never mind cooperation between the coalition and the opposition. Our nation could have had a ‘strong and stable’ government to lead us through these negotiations that are vital to supporting our economy and our nation's stability outside of the EU; however, a snap election threw the conservative party’s strong position out of the window and set us off in a weak position leading into these vital negotiations. We need agreement and cooperation across parties and within them in order to be in a good position ourselves for the leaving process.

Some argue that us 16-17 year olds should not have the right to vote as they are less informed than older people and are not able to make such important decisions without being immature or manipulated by various parties. Who is to say that you, the reader, haven't been manipulated yourself? This 16-year-old shall inform you that there are some fools out there that waste their opportunity to make a change through either not voting or voting randomly due to the lack of a care for the election and the fate of our nation, this demographic is an unacceptably huge 34 percent of the population eligible to vote, whereas those between the ages of 16 and 17 years of age make up a far smaller 3 percent.

When a person turns 16 in the UK they are seen as mature enough to start a family, they are seen as mature enough to have a job, they are seen as mature enough to keep taxes; then why would they not be mature enough to vote and have their opinions heard? The American revolution in 1776 was based on many principles, one of which being the idea of ‘No taxation without representation,’ an ideal which 16-17 year olds in both the US and the UK still have not attained, an ideal that is over 240 years old, an ideal that over 25,000 soldiers died for, an ideal that over 130,000 fought for.

If we had the vote during 2016 and 2017 then the country could be in a far better position, we could have voted to keep Britain in a far more secure position inside the European Union and actually have been able to have a say in a decision that affects us most! We could've given the Tories the majority that they needed to lead us through this time of need for the whole nation. Us 16-17 year olds need a say in politics, or else more and more important decisions to come will be made without those who they truly affect the most having a say in them. We need this vote; you must ask yourself, is a 16 year old, a person who could have a child themselves, a person who pays taxes, really a child?