On 6 February 2008, The National Assembly of Wales passed a motion on reducing the voting age to 16.

Although the motion does not legally reduce the voting age to the Assembly and local elections in Wales it does send an important message to Westminster that the people of Wales wants fairer representation for young people.

At a time when people feel that politics isn’t relevant to them, young people need to be encouraged to take part in democracy, not kept out from it. I find it ludicrous that government expects students in schools to learn ‘citizenship’ up until the age of 16 but, when we are then allowed to leave education; get a job; pay taxes; leave home; join the armed forces for two years, we are not allowed to participate in the democratic structures of this country.”

This is why victories like this will, over time, add up and they will, in turn, push us ever closer to change we want to achieve – votes at 16.

NUS wants to continue this momentum to ensure that the Citizen 16 campaign has the same impact in the whole of the UK. You, and your students, can take lobby for this change with the tools available on the FE homepage.

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