The Liberal Democrats did a sudden U-turn on this tonight, but Stella Creasy MP for Walthamstow managed to get several MPs to attend the vote in the House of Commons by tweeting about it. The support for lowering the voting age has been steadily growing in the UK, and has become a reality in many parts of the British Isles. In the Channel Islands, 16 and 17 year olds already enjoy the vote and although it is a reserved matter the ruling party in Scotland, the SNP, recently passed a policy motion in support of the rights of 16 year olds to vote.
There are also international precedents with some German Lãnder reducing the voting age to 16 for local and regional elections some years ago. Last year Austria reduced the voting age to 16 for all public elections. There are active Votes at 16 cam- paigns across Europe, and it has been adopted by the European Youth Parliament. There are substantial moves afoot for radical reform of the electoral system, not least the big AV vote. Do you think that votes at 16 is a good idea, in a week that mooted lowering the age of sexual consent to 14?

Oh, by the way, if someone complains about the use of the Ishihara plate because it diagnoses colour blindness, may I say in my defence my father is colour-blind, and that this picture is to make the point whether ‘votes at 16′ makes a perceivable difference.

Dr Shibley Rahman is a research physician and research lawyer by training.

Queen’s Scholar, BA (1st.), MA, MB, BChir, PhD, MRCP(UK), LLB(Hons.), FRSA
Director of Law and Medicine Limited
Member of the Fabian Society and Associate of the Institute of Directors