howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
This subject has been raised again with our two main parties predictably differing for purely selfish reasons. I think that 18 is about right but trying to explain that to a 17 year old who is legally entitled to drive a lethal contraption like a car would be difficult.
Button
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,053
Or to those enlisting.
Guest 1713 likes this
(Not my real name.)
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,875
I have never understood why there are so many different age limits, they should all be the same.
In addition to those mentioned by Howard and Button. You can get married at 16, you can leave school at 16 but must continue education as an apprentice etc until 18, you can be an MP at 18.
Common sense to me means everything should be 18.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
Just one question. Would any of you allow your 16 year old son or daughter to decide what you were going to spend the household income on and how much they were going to have in pocket money? Thought not.
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"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,053
Well my immediate answer is "no way"; hell, even in the 50s my parents thought the idea of joint bank accounts was too joined-at-the-hip (although my spouse works on the principle that what's mine is mine and what's yours is mine also). But it cuts both ways. If all the dear children wish to get a job, then who am I to tell them what to spend their money on? So isn't the analogy 'no contribution without representation'? I think it's an interesting debate - any age threshold is artificial, if only because you aren't going to become a seasoned, reasoned voter the very next day.
P.S.: do you still have to be at least 18 to become monarch?
(Not my real name.)
Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
One day the Welsh say at 16 you are responsible enough to vote and the next that you have to be 18 to get a Prince Albert!
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/01/wales-bans-intimate-piercings-under-18s-health-fearsButton likes this
Arte et Marte
Button- Location: Dover
- Registered: 22 Jul 2016
- Posts: 3,053
And you also have to be at least 18 there before you can be deemed to having given your consent for your body parts to be re-used after your death.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/jun/14/wales-deemed-consent-organ-donations-increase-transplants
I'm getting the feeling that voting isn't that important in the grand scheme of things, more of a temporary fad.
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(Not my real name.)
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
Button wrote: If all the dear children wish to get a job, then who am I to tell them what to spend their money on? So isn't the analogy 'no contribution without representation'?
P.S.: do you still have to be at least 18 to become monarch?
So to continue my analogy perhaps we should only let people vote at an age when most of them are roughly putting more into the household income than they are taking out? I suspect the median age for this (with 50% at 'university') is somewhere around 23 but would be happy to settle for 21.
Reginald Barrington likes this
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Weird Granny Slater
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 7 Jun 2017
- Posts: 3,064
Everyone should have the vote, including those between ages 0 and 18. Grannies should be entrusted with a proxy vote for potential electors in a family and, to avoid an absurd kick-in point where one day you can and the next day you can't, it would be up to each granny to decide (according to agreed
subjective criteria, of course) when the subject has reached sufficient maturity to vote (or not to vote) wisely. Wasn't it Samuel Johnson who, at 6 months (when most of us are 'goo-gooing' our way to adulthood), when approached in his pram by a stranger simpering the normal 'Ooh, isn't he a pretty boy?' platitude, felled the lady with a stern 'I refute that statement'? This method would also possess the important social benefit of encouraging the young to respect their elders.
Captain Haddock likes this
'Pass the cow dung, my dropsy's killing me' - Heraclitus
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
lowering the voting age will only help the labour party, that's why it will not be happening.
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howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
Guest 1881- Registered: 16 Oct 2016
- Posts: 1,071
So, have I got this right? The Tory remoaners are advocating lowing the age of suffrage as they think they'll get BREXIT overturned/uber-soft. If ever there was proof needed that the typical "leadership class" politicians think solely about the next election and not for the greater good of the people, here it is.
Uncomfortable Private Member's Bills are usually filibusted - this has all the hallmarks of being a prime target for "The BREXIT Dream Team" filibusterers.
John Buckley and Jan Higgins like this
Just because you don't take an interest in politics doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you. PERICLES.
Captain Haddock- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,070
So let's get this straight, some bearded bloke in Calais is a child who is in need of my protection, while someone who has just failed his GCSEs for the first time has the maturity to weigh up who would best represent him in Parliament.
John Buckley and Jan Higgins like this
"We are living in very strange times, and they are likely to get a lot stranger before we bottom out"
Dr. Hunter S Thompson
Reginald Barrington- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,257
It all comes down to who has the biggest bag of sweets or the cutest puppies!
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Arte et Marte
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,919
Well its moving fast
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
