VOTES AT 16 ? IT SHOULD BE 21 !

While our young people attend schools, colleges and universities, or work as apprentices, until some of them are well into their 20s, the Labour, Liberal Democratic, Green, Scottish Nationalists and Plaid Cymru all want the voting age lowered to 16. Only the Conservatives and Ukip are opposed to such a change.

When I was 18, I was on the point of leaving school and was one of the relatively few who went on to university; the majority of my age group was either already at work or on the point of commencing work and the age at which mandatory education ended was 15. I had worked as a paper delivery boy for over 4 years and had summer jobs in offices.

Today, our children are required to remain in full time education or training until they are 18 and a ridiculously large number then move on to second rate and largely pointless university courses; few have ever had a job of any sort. In the end, far too many gain no experience of the real world outside of the educational sphere.

Despite this trend of keeping young people in education rather than sending them out into the real world of work and responsibility, all of our left-wing political parties want to extend the privilege of voting to more of them. In truth, most have no interest in politics and less understanding of the world; most seem to spend their free time posting drivel on 'Facebook' or other similar 'social media' websites.

Far from reducing the voting age, we should really be increasing it to reflect the longer time spent in education and away from reality. A return to votes at 21 makes much more sense than votes at 16 ever would, except to the socialists who expect the youngsters to vote for them in their droves.

A case of political expediency 'par excellence'.