Raise Voting Age to 25?

I listened to some of BBC Northern Ireland's Nolan Show tonight. There was a discussion as to whether sixteen year olds should be allowed to vote

 

Not unsurprisingly there were individuals who supported this idea and others who were aghast at the suggestion. As for my own notions? Well there is no doubt that I would tend to the latter view. I cannot accept that a school child should have a say in how we are governed. Rather than reduce the voting age I would suggest that it should be increased, certainly to the previous age of twenty one and I could be convinced that twenty five might even be a safer age. Of course there are certain young people who are very mature for their years and who are very sensible, but if you are going to have universal suffrage over a particular age then there is merit in maximising the reasoning abilities and common sense of your electorate. That is not achieved by giving votes to the tuckshop queue.