Well, it’s been one heck of a time for the Votes at 16 campaign recently! Gordon Brown has announced that as part of the Governments review in to constitutional reform, they will be looking at the voting age, and we really need to step things up a gear to make sure that we get the voting age lowered. The voting age is going to be looked at specifically by the Citizenship Commission from the Ministry of Justice, and whilst it has not yet been set up, it will be extremely important for us to participate in their review when it begins.
Also, during the Labour Party contest for the Deputy leadership, many of the contestants came out in support of the votes at 16- Hillary Benn, Peter Hain and Jon Crudas all said they support it, whilst the eventual winner, Harriet Harman, said she was interested that children could “come straight out of very good citizenship education and into the polling booth” if citizenship was improved. We now need to persuade the Government that Votes at 16 will actually improve citizenship, with young people becoming more interested in voting, which would seem far more relevant, rather than some far off thing they needn’t worry about.
At the annual sitting, there was a lot of work done. We agreed to do a national Votes at 16 survey to show young people do want the voting age lowered, and to get local councils to pass motions asking to trial votes at 16 in local elections. We recently had our first success, with Eastbourne council agreeing to ask if they can run a pilot for their next local elections! They join a number of other councils who have declared they support votes at 16. The votes at 16 group also looked in to how young people can be encouraged to go out and vote when the voting age is lowered- important foresight for when the voting age finally is lowered!
Before the annual sitting, we also met with Shadow Secretary of State for the Ministry of Justice, Nick Herbert to discuss the Votes at 16. He said that whilst the Conservatives are not yet persuaded, he did indicate that they were open minded on the issue and could be persuaded.
It’s really important that all of us at UKYP have a huge effort on this now and step things up a gear. Now is a crucial time for the campaign, and you have a part to play! You can help greatly by completing the Votes at 16 survey in your area by getting schools to complete it during tutorial lessons, and getting your local council to pass a motion of support. |
