Do you have a voice?

The Scottish Government is looking at the possibility of raising the legal age for buying alcohol from 18 to 21 years of age. Now, I know that I'm fast approaching 30 and I won't be able to call myself 'young' for very much longer, but if I could only try and put myself in the mind of a 16, 18 or 21 year old right now, I could be sure that they would be very confused with the varying rules and regulations that are being placed upon their lives.

They are paying taxes at 16, voting at 18, allowed to drink at 18, drive at 17. Personally, I would welcome some consistency, and I think that some clarity would naturally ensue...

What annoys me is that most of these proposals almost always ignore the opinions of young people. Although we have new ways of communicating with young people, it still seems as if the world is against them. We need only talk about ASBO's, or the new mosquito sound device which attempts to disperse young people from large crowds as if they were rats in an dirty alleyway, to realise that we need to take a step back, take stock, and reconsider our attitudes towards young people.

So they may not vote in their droves, but this isn't a reason to undermine them or to treat them like 3rd class citizens. Take binge drinking as an example- of course this is an issue that we must deal with, but is it really a youth phenomenon, or is it a social phenomenon( not even of our times)? Take anti-social behaviour- can we really say that it is only young people who are disruptive, and negatively affect the society we all live in? Take crime- is it really only young people who are stealing or joyriding? If you take the media at face value, you would believe as such.

I don't pretend for a minute that those gangs of young people on our streets don't exist, or that underage drinking doesn't happen, but I think that over regulating what our young people can and can't do, and more importantly when they can and can't do it will only intensify the problems we have in Wales, or Britain for that matter. Perhaps I am an idealist, but if we could only try and treat young people with a little more respect from the outset, then at least we would be able to try and nurture a relationship of equals.

Having met some people from the USA over the last few weeks while in Berlin, we got on to the subject of drinking, where it is illegal for anyone under 21 to consume alcohol. As expected, they said that people would buy alcohol illegally and drink as groups in their University dorm rooms or houses. Changing the age limit on alcohol consumption will change little, but what will make a difference will be the changing of attitudes in society, and the way we live our lives.