Giving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote is a cynical ploy
Constitutional reform is not a high priority for most citizens, who see far more urgent problems in need of solutions, yet this distraction is being given valuable parliamentary time, in order to have the measures enshrined in law before the next election. No guesses necessary as to why the rush.
There will always be exceptions, and an age limit is by nature arbitrary, but the fact remains most 16 and 17-year-olds are not sufficiently mature to make measured political choices. That is partly, as Michael Oakeshott pointed out decades ago, a function of the virtues of youth. 'Everybody's young days are a dream,' the great philosopher wrote in 1956, 'nothing in them has a fixed shape, nothing a fixed price; everything is a possibility, and we live happily on credit.'
As indeed does this Labour government, which is perhaps why polls suggest the party is the preferred choice of 28 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds, compared with 22 per cent of the electorate overall. The appeal for Labour of adding a tranche of idealistic, spend-now-pay-later voters is obvious.
And yet, be careful what you wish for. The young do often challenge the established order, but if Labour represents that order (as it once did in Scotland, where the young turned en masse to the nationalists), and Reform, the Greens, and perhaps a rump Corbynista outfit can pose as the rebels, this is one not-so-cunning plan that could backfire spectacularly. It deserves to.
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