Should the voting age be reduced to 16?

LABOUR’S Emily Thornberry has called for 16 year-olds to be given the vote (Mail). Would those who wish to entrust these young people with a vote be agreeable to being tried by them as part of a jury? M. SIMMS, Ottery St Mary, Devon. ANYONe with common sense would never give the vote to 16-year-olds. They are schoolchildren without life experience. The reason Labour have brought this question to the Commons is that they know young people will vote for them. JOHN CARDEN, Sunderland. THE desperate Labour Party will try anything to glean more votes. Using children as political pawns because they think they can groom them to vote Labour is scandalous. Leave children alone! ROGER FOWNES, Bromsgrove, Worcs. The Year 11s in my former school debated votes for 16-year-olds and agreed overwhelmingly they were not yet ready to cast a meaningful vote. There then followed a mock election in which students formed their own parties promoting issues they thought important. To my surprise, some well-thought-out and well-argued, mature themes were put forward. however, the Let’s All Get high party won by a landslide. STJOHN COX, Taunton, Somerset. WHEN I was 16, solutions to the world’s problems, which seemed to evade our country’s leaders, were blindingly obvious to me. I had all the answers, yet I was barred from the ballot box. Decades later, I realise that giving me the vote at 16 would have been as irresponsible as handing me the keys to a sports car. Labour knows only too well that 16-year-olds are easily influenced. Offering them a wish list of undeliverable promises would secure their vote. The campaign to lower the voting age has nothing to do with broadening the bounds of democracy and everything to do with harvesting the immaturity of the young. TONY EDWARDS, Ockham, Surrey.