Giving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote: Lost opportunity (From York Press)

Giving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote: Lost opportunity

12:00pm Thursday 25th October 2012 in Letters By Reader's letter

I AM pleased that James Alexander and his party have decided to support the Liberal Democrat policy of giving 16 and 17-year-olds the vote (The Press, October 18).

It is just sad it took Labour so long to see sense. If the Labour Government had supported this campaign between 1997 and 2010, the battle would already be won.

Tony Blair had the opportunity to introduce radical constitutional reform to reshape politics.

Yet he flunked this and the opportunity was lost.

Successive Liberal Democrat attempts to establish votes at 16 during Blair’s time in power were defeated, first by Labour MPs in 1999 and then by a combination of Labour and Conservative MPs in 2005.

James seems unaware that allowing people to vote at 16 was first supported by City of York Council in 2005 after a Lib Dem motion.

Seven years later, the case remains compelling. Young people can fight for our country, get married, have full-time jobs and pay tax, so they should have a say in how they are governed.

Coun Carol Runciman, Liberal Democrat group leader, City of York Council.