The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #165570 Message #4016159
Posted By: Steve Shaw
30-Oct-19 - 07:39 AM
Thread Name: BS: Brexit #3: A futile gesture?
Subject: RE: BS: Brexit #3: A futile gesture?
At 16 you can leave school and go into paid employment, when you will be subject to the same income tax regime as everyone else. You can join the army as a soldier at 16. You can marry and have children at 16. I note that the voting age for the Scottish independence referendum was 16. Whilst I support lowering the age to 16, I feel that it's a matter for more "leisurely" debate in Parliament than was possible yesterday. Trying to push it there and then risked putting off the election by months to allow for the bureaucracy of updating electoral registers. That would have been vexatious, though these things are always worth a shot, which at least puts the issue on the agenda for the future, a legitimate ploy in a democracy. I also note that this is an issue that has been pushed more by the SNP than by other parties, though there is wide cross-party support for it.
To me, voting rights for EU citizens is an injustice issue that needs urgent fixing. It won't be fixed, of course, while we have a bunch of eurosceptics running the show. We'll remember that next time we hear Tories burbling on about their concept of "democracy."