Voting Age

Moderator: This is a response to a previous post by James Graham.

Claire Fox (London, Institute of Ideas): James Graham from Unlock Democracy wants to go further than Gordon Brown and reduce the voting age to 13. I'm afraid, if we follow his advice, we won't be unlocking democracy, but rather undermining it. James argues that it is a matter of civil liberties. But is he seriously arguing this is what is driving Brown and others who are clamouring to lower the age of suffrage? If that were the case, surely those concerned with the erosion of liberty for the young would shout louder about the abolition of ASBOs or the proposed expansion of compulsory schooling / training until 18.

James Graham (London, Unlock Democracy): Over on TalkDemocracy, Anthony Tuffin has been pouring cold water on the Government's proposal to revisit reducing the voting age to 16. This reminded me of an article in the Times this weekend by Claire Fox, who was similarly dismissive: