Should 16 and 17-year-olds have the right to vote? Sussex readers have their say

We decided to ask our readers whether they thought England should follow suit. On the whole it seemed to be a 50/50 split between the yes and no camps.

Emi-Rose Brown argued the teenagers should be given the vote. "If you actually engage our younger people in conversation rather than just assuming that they’re not mature enough, you’d probably realise they’re actually pretty savvy and intelligent. Last election my youngest wasn’t old enough but he talked way more sense than many others with the power to vote."

Stephen Newte agreed, writing on the West Sussex County Times Facebook page: "We get back to the argument about if you are responsible to marry and have children why are you not responsible enough to vote on something which will be for five years only. Or the argument about no taxation without representation. You are old enough to work, pay NI and tax so why not be able to vote on the people who decide these things."