Youth Parliament member supports nationwide campaign

An Elected Deputy Member of Youth Parliament for Hertfordshire is throwing his weight behind a campaign which will enable 16 and 17 year olds to vote in elections. Anand Mistry DMYP is the Young Person representing Young People across Watford and he is promoting is the Votes@16 UKYP national campaign as he feels that 16 year olds will be affected by policies across the country. He said: “As we live in a democracy, 16 year olds will be affected by some large policies. This may include the partition of Scotland, or Independence from the EU. As well as this, there may be changes to taxes that could affect a 16 year old. This policy would allow young people to say whether they think the tax changes are necessary or not. “The second reason for having this campaign is so that the various parties will consider the young adult population and focus some of their issues towards the younger generation. By increasing the voting percentage, the opinions would be more empirical, and therefore much better for the system to show successful democracy.” Watford MP, Richard Harrington, and many Hertfordshire County Councillors support Anand and the campaign. Councillors who support it include Steve Johnson, Karen Collett, Jan Brown and Jeanette Aron. Anand added: “I am 15 now, so if this law is passed I could vote in the local councillor elections in 2016. Although I will be too young to vote in the general election in 2015, many people of my age group will be old enough and they feel that they should be able to express their right to democracy. “This is as many of these people have jobs such as a newspaper delivery service. When they turn 16, most of these people will take a job that will require them to pay tax. This means that they will be paying into the system, but with no opinion on what is done with the money.