I remember being 16 in the 1960s. The prime minister seemed geriatric and I was sure he should be in care, while a group of us went to meet our young MP, a certain Margaret Thatcher. She was young, but she didn’t seem as if she was with the times. We could not dream of voting for someone like her. Matter closed.
Sixteen-year-olds are great fun but they are not grown up. They cannot marry in England and Wales, drive, smoke, get a tattoo or buy alcohol on their own. They are legally classed as children and are supposed to be in formal education or training to 18. Sixteen-year-olds have not taken to the streets demanding the right to the franchise, like the Chartists or suffragettes did.
