Democracy and whatnot.

In June of this year, Britain made the decision to leave the European Union (I'm not saying it was a good decision but it was a decision nonetheless). People have been fairly annoyed with this referendum ever since we decided to leave and it also seems to have set a precedent for the rest of 2016 being a fairly subpar year - looking at you America. I mean, some people have seen the positives of a Britain independent from the EU, but who are they kidding we might as well build our bomb shelters now and pray that God will forgive us for our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

One thing that really hacked off voters this year was the voting age. There we all were, a nation making the biggest decision of our generation, and our generation wasn't actually allowed to vote. I KNOW! IT'S CRAZY! Apparently over one third people of my generation (i.e. the 1999+ crew) will be living until over one hundred years old (though we won't know it because we'll all have a serious amount of dementia by then) which means that we have to live with the decisions that the older generations are making. Fun times. I mean don't get me wrong I'm all for democracy and whatnot and I accept that the referendum was a (mostly) democratic campaign, but it would have been nice to participate so I could at least be able to say "hey, I tried" before immigrating to Venezuela where I would be spending the rest of my days as a Capybara.

16-17 year olds should have been able to vote. End of story. To start off with there is a massive list of things you can do age 16. You can get married, drive a moped, fly a freaking glider, legally change your name, get a lottery ticket, have consenting sex, join the army and you can even leave home without asking your parents permission first. But you can't vote. You can literally fly a plane, but you cant vote. Sounds fair. Just kidding that's actually ridiculous.

Of course, there are arguments against 16+ voting which do make sense. There is the argument for protecting under-18s which can be seen in legislation where we cannot legally gamble (but we can buy lottery tickets?), get a tattoo (who's up for getting a piercing though?), buy tobacco and drinks, use a sunbed (but the actual sun is totally fine), write a will or open a bank account...but we can have sex and voluntarily die for our country (but we're not allowed to buy penknives). I do understand the argument for protecting us, but this argument is completely inconsistent with itself as at the age of 16 we are allowed to make some quite big decisions and take a more mature position in the world we inhabit. Also, interesting fact for you, there is research suggesting that the age of proper maturity is 25. 25! Shouldn't that mean that 18-24 year olds technically aren't mature enough to vote? I'll be frank, I have met plenty of 16-17 year olds who should not be given the vote. But I will also very confidently say that there are people anywhere between the ages of 18-112 (the age of the oldest person in Britain, if you didn't already know) that should not be voters either because they are more uninformed than plenty of my peers.

I was talking to one of my teachers recently and she said that young people today a much more informed and sophisticated now than they were when she was my age. John Oliver, a popular American TV show host, also said that politics is much more at the forefront of people's minds than 30 odd years ago. As a generation we are, on the whole, well informed. We watch the news, read newspapers and actively take part in debate. After the referendum a few of my friends even staged a march protesting against the vote! One of the main articles of my school's newspaper will be on Brexit and the US election alongside problems such as the refugee crisis, the NHS, and the rise of political correctness, gender awareness and acceptance and the growing diversity of our nation. We are not a reckless and uniformed mass, we are a political group of people. We DO know what we are talking about and the reason we want a vote is so that our voice can be heard and we can make decisions that will affect the rest of our long lives. What we are asking for will not be the ending of democracy. Anarchy and pandemonium will not happen in the streets. We will not lose our innocence by getting to vote. We will be exercising our democratic right to decide how we want our country to work and how we want to work with our country. Give the vote to 16-17 year olds. I dare you, Theresa May

You never know it could be fun.