Old enough to die for you, but not old enough to vote for you

There is speculation that following plans to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote on the Scottish independence referendum, the government might just let them vote in general elections too.

Of course the lords are kicking up a massive stink about this, probably moaning about adding thousands more of the 'great unwashed' into the franchise. A note to those moaning about it being too big a constitutional change- so was extending the vote to women? and Britain recovered from that pretty quickly.

though I agree that most 16 and 17 year olds aren't clued up enough on politics at the moment to make a well enough informed decision, this change would mean that politics will have to be taught in schools, even if it's just a few PSHE lessons.

At 16 I was already very political and knew exactly who i would have voted for in the 2010 elections but I was denied the opportunity (not that it would have made any difference to the result). 

At 16 people are allowed to have sex, have to pay taxes if they work and can even join the army but they're not allowed to vote. I think there's something very very wrong about that. At 16 most are considered adults however the government is still treating them like children by taking away their democratic voice.