Votes at 16?

1.25.45pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 30th Jul 2008

Labour's National Policy Forum last weekend at Warwick agreed to Votes at 16 to be included in their next manifesto.

The Liberal Democrats are, of course, already committed to Votes at 16. The Liberal Democrats came to the logical conclusion that 16 marks an age at which people are mature enough to make decisions.

Labour on the other hand, by changing the age at which one can buy cigarettes to 18 and talks about compulsory education lasting until 18 this move seems rather odd and has little or no grounding in logic.

I won't rehash the arguments for Votes at 16, I have outlined them before but perhaps we should look at abolishing these different age rates (between 16 and 25 - there are separate arguments for other age bands) and have one single age when people are deemed an adult.

At this age they can smoke, drink, vote, have sex, marry, drive be paid the same national minimum wage and be taxed as well as all those other things considered 'Adult'. Once we agree this we can start discussing the actual age.