Last year, young people aged 16 and over were fully submerged into politics as they were given the right to vote in the Scottish Referendum. For the first time, young people were taking an interest in what was happening in their country and were engaging in political discussions. However, less than a year later they now cannot vote in the General Election. We asked two of our senior pupils about their opinions on how they now do not have the right to vote.
How did you feel about being able to vote?
Hayley: I felt it was important that 16 year olds could vote in the referendum as it wasn’t our grandparents’ or parents’ future that it would affect. It would be ours. If you didn’t vote then you didn’t have the right to complain about the result.
Rachel: I felt it was important for us to vote on our future as it will affect us the most and we should be able to make important decisions that will affect our lives.
Did you feel that you took more of an interest in the political debate?
Rachel: Yes, because I has the right to vote for the first time I wanted to use my vote sensibly and make sure I was making the correct decision for me.
Hayley: Yes because I needed to make an informative decision about my future. I looked through some sections of the White Paper that interested me as well as engaging in discussion with my peers, parents and teachers.
The General Election is almost a month away and you will not be able to vote this time. How do you feel about this?
Hayley: I feel like it is a bit silly as we were trusted with a monumental and history making vote last year and we were able to make a decision for our future. Whereas, now we can’t vote as to who runs our country and cannot influence any decisions that ultimately will affect the way that we live the rest of our lives.
Rachel: I think that it is quite unfair because they gave us the vote and then took it away from us. When you look at the various television debates throughout the build up to the referendum I feel that some of the most well informed contributions and questions were from the young people aged between 16 and 18. We had proved ourselves that we can take the vote seriously and make a decision that was right for us rather than copying our parents’ opinions.
What do you think needs to be done to continue to engage young people in politics?
Rachel: I think they should change the voting age to 16 permanently as I know from personal experience that once I was given the vote I maintained an interest in the political news stories and things that were affecting me.
Hayley: I think that more discussions in school should surrounding local political issues so that they have more of an awareness about things and changes that will affect them. I also feel that a lot of the issues that affect young people are never really addressed towards them so they are not interested in these issues.
Thank you for taking the time to talk to us today.
