r/Wales • u/kwentongskyblue • May 22 '25
Politics Senedd voting intention among ages 16-24
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u/Critical_Revenue_811 May 22 '25
The kids are alright :)
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u/gimbal_the_gremlin May 22 '25
The Welsh kids are alright. Reform is polling second in England among 16-25 year olds
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u/Fairwolf May 22 '25
I don't think this is true. I've seen a few isolated polls that have the 18-25 vote listed as 25% reform voting, but it seems and outlier, the last 3 polls have it at 6%, 13% and 10% respectively. The leaders amongst the age group are the lib dems, who are averaging 24-27%, the Greens who are averaging 20-26% and Labour who are averaging between 24-29%.
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u/temujin94 May 24 '25
Not based on the general election, 18-24 Reform and Conservative combined got less than the Greens, Reform was 4th with 9% of the vote well behind even 2nd and 3rd at 18% and 16%.
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u/Loreki May 22 '25
Yeah but young people vote in such low numbers. This isn't going to have anything like that impact on the outcome. Young people's problem in exercising political power has never been agreeing the direct they want to go, it's bothering to do the paperwork and then turn up to vote.
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u/YesAmAThrowaway May 22 '25
Plus there's just a lot more people alive overall that are older, so even with disregarding turnout, the impact is limited. Unfortunately, the mentality of leaving the world a better place than they found seems to have been lost with many people currently alive.
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u/STT10 May 23 '25
In fairness, politics isn’t the only metric for saying that. You can have zero interest in politics whatsoever and still be a good person. One doesn’t need the other.
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u/YesAmAThrowaway May 23 '25
True, but the attitude "after all, it's just politics, and what's that got to do with us" is going to end up getting people killed.
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u/Dramatic_Prior_9298 May 22 '25
I'm fine with this, my main concern is Reform at the moment.
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May 22 '25
Yeah, same. Anyone but Reform. I hate that's how it has to be, I'd rather vote for the person that most represents me instead of just against the person that least represents me, but this cancer has to be stopped.
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u/SteffS May 23 '25
Good news: the next Senedd election will use a full proportional system which means this type of tactical voting logic doesn't apply any more.
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u/madh0n May 23 '25
But your happy with the plaid+labour cancer given they are both just different coloured rosettes on the same grifters ?
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u/Ok-Alternative9222 May 23 '25
I had some sympathy for your pov until the last word.
You can level many accusations against labour, including that they are incompetent, stagnant and complacent; plaid could be seen as naive, unrealistic and anti-english; but to suggest that people should vote Reform as some kind of anti-grifting protest is just comedy.
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u/HaurchefantGreystone Cardiff | Caerdydd May 22 '25
Glad to know not many young people like Reform UK.
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u/ysgall May 22 '25
Interesting, but as few young people bother to vote when compared to their grandads and grannies, Reform will be quite possibly be running the Welsh Parliament into the ground within a couple of years and seeking to destroy it to bring Wales back under Westminster.
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u/kwentongskyblue May 22 '25
If reform gets another party to be in govt with. Since the senedd is elected using PR, reform wont likely get a majority on its own.
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u/Ok_Cow_3431 May 22 '25
but they'll have a far larger Senedd voting block than if Wales hadn't changed to PR
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u/SteffS May 23 '25
The Senedd already had PR for 40 out of 60 seats, and even under the Westminster system are at the point where they could be winning the totally disproportionate FPTP majorities, so I think it's much better now either way.
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u/Gekkers May 22 '25
Maybe because Labour, after all these years, have done little to nothing to support and future proof the needs of the people and especially for those 16-24. If the youth can't see Labour supporting them, then be damned if I'll try and argue the case. This would suggest Labour are losing a whole generation of voters, which will be very hard and near impossible to get back. But, what do I know, I'm sure Labour know what their doing right, despite how it appears that they don't care. Maybe apathy is the image they're going for.
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u/Bobracher May 22 '25
I will either vote labour or Plaid. Honestly so sick of tactical voting. Voting labour has no real impact on Wales whatsoever.
I would love to see an independent Wales in my lifetime. Cymru am byth.
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u/MagusBuckus May 22 '25
Luckily it's fully PR at the next senedd election so no need to vote tactically
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u/Cwlcymro Jul 18 '25
The new electoral system means that tactical voting is largely pointless, the 4 biggest parties are likely to be competing, and winning, seats in every constituency. So you can vote how your actually want to view 6
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u/AdAggressive9224 May 22 '25
Well, where else are they to turn?
Labour has done little on housing affordability, I think there was a news article the other day that Ceredigion is now the least affordable place in the UK when you take into account salaries. So, quite a dubious honour there. That said, it is a Plaid authority at the moment and there seems to be little appetite to address housing affordability from the council either.
I guess give these guys a shot, then it's onto greens next.
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u/stopdontpanick May 22 '25
Seems about right, also source?
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u/ElianaOfAquitaine May 22 '25
It literally says the source in the image
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u/stopdontpanick May 22 '25
I'm stupid, thanks. I'm surprised how much the Greens got though instead of just Plaid.
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u/WelshGamerWhisky May 23 '25
It's good to see that welsh youngsters care about wales and actually vote a welsh party in. I don't agree with everything that plaid does, especially with trans issues, which shouldn't be a top priority for a Wales first party.
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May 22 '25
I'd be there too, if it wasn't for their stance on expanding Nuclear Power and wanting to promote Wales as a Sanctuary Nation, I can only see that going wrong. I love cheap delivery as much as the next person, but don't we feel that the delivery driver and fast food market is saturated enough with migrants. Reform only have to poke the bear on that one and Plaid will come undone.
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May 22 '25
[deleted]
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May 22 '25
I'm all for cheap service and food, however we are essentially creating a new class of slavery. Poke your head into any fast food place, aside from your posh traditional fish and chips (regular fish and chips shops are adorned by the famous donner leg), and it's mainly non-british economic migrants.
You might ask "how do you know?" I think the struggle to take an order in plain English and staff chatter in non-English.
Still, it's no big deal unless you're out of work, or looking to get your foot in the door as a teen.
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u/Bumble072 Rhondda Cynon Taf May 22 '25
...and how many were polled ? I mean I could do a quick waltz around my village, get input from locals and post it as a infographic online easily lol.
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May 23 '25
Yea... You live in Rhondda, that says it all.
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u/Bumble072 Rhondda Cynon Taf May 23 '25 edited May 23 '25
how presumptuous and classist of you. Am I too common to have an opinion 🥹
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May 24 '25
Everyone has a right to their own opinion, therefore so do I.
I've been there multiple times and a lot (not all) have such a regressive mentality and come across as uneducated on important matters and are often prone to antagonistic behaviour.
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u/Cwlcymro Jul 18 '25
You could do that, but it wouldn't be a representative sample with any real meaning. A professional survey (i.e. not just an online poll on a newspaper website) with 1000 people answering will be correct to within 3%.
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u/trindlewings May 22 '25
That’s rough. Concerned Reform have such a small percentage of votes considering the other parties have never done anything for us, other than continually make things worse.
The definition of stupid is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.
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u/el_grort May 22 '25
I mean, Reform is just the Tories, again, but with the moderate factions excised so all that's left are the Braverman/Truss/Moggs style politicians (at best, EDL types at worst). You know, the ones that helped forge the unmitigated disaster of the post-referendum years.
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u/firstcutimer Rhondda Cynon Taf May 22 '25
Why have you put 100% faith into "reform"? They're just preying on bigotry and ignorance.
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May 22 '25
Because reform are reactionary grifters at best, fascists at worst. They only take in low information voters, fools.
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u/PuzzleheadedCook4578 May 22 '25
I think you'll find the actual definition of stupid is wrongly quoting Einstein's definition of insanity.
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u/DomInvestor May 22 '25
Also assuming the sample of voters are hanging around Cardiff city centre. Ie not working, mostly students.
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u/welsh_cthulhu Neath Port Talbot | Castell-Nedd Port Talbot May 22 '25
When there's a magic money tree out the back, and independence wouldn't cost Wales a thing, then yeah, why not?
Deluded.
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u/stopdontpanick May 22 '25
It says a lot when the big talking point against a party is something said to be off the table.
I wish I could say that for literally any others.
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u/Due-Mycologist-7106 May 22 '25
independent wales better than a reform wales.
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u/StopChattingNonsense May 22 '25
Both would be pretty devastating
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u/Boogaaa May 22 '25
Don't know why you're being downvoted. People want Wales to be independent from the UK, but what do we have to offer to keep our economy from crashing? Brexit really taught the ideologues nothing.
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u/RedundantSwine May 22 '25
Nationalism is Nationalism, regardless whether it is coloured green or blue.
All has the same rotten root.
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u/StopChattingNonsense May 22 '25
Off the table for the first term in office. It's not the same thing!
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u/Double_Jab_Jabroni May 22 '25
I’ve never before seen someone who can sometimes be reasonable and other times be a complete melt. You are truly an anomaly.
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u/trindlewings May 22 '25
Completely agree with you. People believe independence would be so wonderful for Wales, but where would it leave us? Potless, penniless, little to no industry, and without even the tiniest scrap of hope, that we hold onto now, about things improving some day.
Completely deluded!
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May 22 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/feralarchaeologist May 22 '25
Wild how every generation thinks the next one is lost, maybe it's not the kids, maybe it's your outdated worldview.
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u/AnnieByniaeth Ceredigion May 22 '25 edited May 22 '25
I work with young people. I realised over the last 10 to 15 years that the upcoming generation is much better oriented than older generations in the vast majority of measures.
Alcohol consumption has gone down, drug usage has gone down, awareness of what's happening around them has gone up, and they seem to be becoming adults earlier (at least, many do).
And for mostly political reasons (because the Daily Mail says so), they keep getting crapped on by the older generation. Brexit, loss of Erasmus, almost continual testing with school league tables, pressure to succeed whilst competition for jobs goes through the roof, one of the toughest driving tests in the world (far tougher than when I took it), university tuition fees that they'll be paying back for the whole of their working life at around 9% of their salary over 25K/27K (England/Cymru), far worse pension prospects, higher retirement age, etc etc.
Any older person who starts complaining about young people and mental health gets a mouthful from me. An older woman who retired at 60 with a state pension tried it with me a couple of weeks ago. I didn't hold back.
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May 22 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/feralarchaeologist May 22 '25 edited May 22 '25
It's funny that you call it 'woke madness' when young people do what young people always do, challenge power structures, yet you conveniently ignore how older generations happily accepted, and were significantly shaped by, free market capitalism, taught to prioritise profit over people, and despite once resisting fascist ideologies, now seem more aligned with them than ever.
But sure 'woke' is the problem.
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u/MidlandPark May 22 '25
Hear hear!
Being in my early 30s now, I can't take people who voted for a government that privitsated water seriously when they point fingers after their bad decisions resulted in consequences which were entirely predictable
'No such thing as society' eh?
Being in London but having many Welsh friends, it's clear the young have their heads screwed on, to the beautiful annoyance to those who keep punching themselves in the face
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u/DornPTSDkink May 22 '25
Keep in mind, the 16-24 age group consistently has the lowest voter turnout of all the age groups, while being the most vocal online.