LABOUR\u00a0councillors have come\u00a0under fire over two motions they want to debate at Thursday’s Cardiff council meeting.
\nThe first, put forward by Sam Knight, urges the\u00a0council to back a national campaign to give the vote to 16-year-olds and supports strong, unbiased political education to pre A-level pupils in schools.
\nBut the\u00a0council\u2019s Conservative group only supports the part about political education for pre A-level pupils.
\nConservative group leader Rod McKerlich expressed doubts that extending the vote would increase turnout.\u00a0He said\u00a0in areas with large student populations,\u00a0like Roath, not many young people voted.
\nThe campaign was launched after 16 and 17-year-olds were granted the vote for the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
\nThe second motion, put forward by Ed Stubbs, is in support of opponents of the Trade Union Bill being debated in the House of Lords.
\nIt proposes that the council support the TUC and its affiliated unions in their campaign against bill and lobby\u00a0national politicians to do the same.
\nBut Councillor McKerlich said: \u201cCardiff council cannot influence trade union legislation. I\u00a0would rather talk about council services than candy floss motions that do not affect the people of Cardiff.”
\nPlaid Cymru supports the motion but its councillor Gareth Holden said: \u201cIt is hypocritical of the Labour group to propose this when they eroded trade union rights when last in government.\u201d
\nHowever, Labour councillor Chris Lomax hit back. \u201cThe bill is against rights that have been fought for over 100 years.\u00a0The Conservatives want us to turn a blind eye to the bill and let it go through.\u00a0Plaid are just trying to score political points.
\n\u201cLabour never mistreated trade unions when in government.\u201d
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LABOUR\u00a0councillors have come\u00a0under fire over two motions they want to debate at Thursday’s Cardiff council meeting. The first, put forward by Sam Knight, urges the\u00a0council to back a national campaign to give the vote to 16-year-olds and supports strong, unbiased political education to pre A-level pupils in schools. But the\u00a0council\u2019s Conservative group only supports the part about political education for pre A-level pupils. Conservative group leader Rod McKerlich expressed doubts that extending the vote would increase turnout.\u00a0He said\u00a0in areas with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":248,"featured_media":7843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[292],"tags":[52,3297,3298,3299,2935,3300],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-7810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cardiff-council","tag-mckerlich","tag-teenagers","tag-trade-union-bill","tag-votes","tag-voting"],"yoast_head":"\n