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Rob Philpott wrote: Any thoughts?
My guess is the majority of adults don't even understand what they are voting for so I am not sure including youth would change things much.
However, no way should 16 year olds be allowed to vote. 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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It's also rather difficult to know what you are voting for, when the party you vote for renegues on its election promises.
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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Kids under 16 are idiots.
On the other hand, so are most people anyway.
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harold aptroot wrote: Kids under 16 are idiots.
What other age group of kids is there?
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I like Frankie Boyle's idea of lowering the voting age to 2, since most two-year-olds know as much about politics as most adults. 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Richard Deeming wrote: most two-year-olds know as much about politics
They behave equally, at least : sleep and eat a lot, talk nonsense and deliver tons of sh*t.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Rob Philpott wrote: Any thoughts?
Although I live in the States, I don't think children should vote. I actually don't think citizens should vote until you are 25 or 30 years of age, but again, this is my opinion.
Rob Philpott wrote: I wonder how many of these children even knew the role of a Central Bank.
Exactly to my point. I would wonder how many "adults" there knew the role of the C.B.
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I think it should be upped to about 55. That way people of that age would have lived long enough to have been screwed by both parties multiple times and would therefore be in a better position to decide who screws them the best.
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as the teaching profession is heavily populated by the left it makes sense to lower the age into the bracket where teacher have a big impact (at least for labour/Lib Dems)
i.e. before the kids get into the real world and realise that what people say can work and what actually works in the real world are two vastly different things
You cant outrun the world, but there is no harm in getting a head start
Real stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
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I heard somewhere (probably More or Less on R4) that this 71% was based on a sample size of...
wait for it ...
14 (yes one four, fourteen)
Regards, Stewart
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There are plenty of people in Britain well over 16 who don't know the role of a central bank, or many of the other things that they vote for or against.
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Have my 5 vote.
And do not aks why, I don't know.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Amen. If any kind of competency was a prerequisite for voting, pretty much all adults in any country would be disqualified.
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People should not be allowed to vote.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Regardless of the country, I think the minimum age to join the armed forces and defend the country should be at least the minimum age for voting.
In never made sense to me that someone can join the armed forces with their parents permission, but not be able to vote.
By the same token, I am totally fine with setting the minimum age for a drivers license to be the same as the age to join the armed forces and vote.
Tim
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Exactly, everything should be the same minimum age. Then comes the question : what age ?
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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Rob Philpott wrote: I wonder how many of these children even knew the role of a Central Bank.
I think this misses the real point - most adults don't know what the Central Bank does, or pretty much about anything of any real importance.
What is unique about the under 18s is that they've had ~10 years of Salmondonian education. 10 years of Scottish Nationalist education. Case in point, my brother in law arrived at our house for a visit. We gave my missus's nephew some paper and pencils to draw with. He drew nothing but Saltires. I asked him what he was drawing "The flag of the greatest country in the world"* piped the response.
OK a bit of pride in one's own may not be a bad thing, but here is the real kicker though - he's Jordanian and so are his parents, they only moved to Scotland two years ago, as my brother in law works as a locum doctor up there. That is the effect of two years of Salmond's propaganda network - imagine what 10 years must achieve. This is the group Salmond managed to get Cameron to extend the franchise to.
Alberto Brandolini: The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
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Keith Barrow wrote: He drew nothing but Saltires
Yeah, this is plain wrong, everyone knows the flag of the greatest country in the world is the French flag.
(The one with the three colors).
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
modified 1-Oct-14 11:22am.
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Rage wrote: (The one with the three colors).
Well I've heard of 50 shades of grey, but not three shades of white. 
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Fun fact of the day : the blue and red parts of our flags are velcro-fastened on the central white flag, so that we can easily detach them if something gets too dangerous.
~RaGE();
I think words like 'destiny' are a way of trying to find order where none exists. - Christian Graus
Entropy isn't what it used to.
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And the parents have a responsibility in child rearing as well. If the parent allows their child to get all of their opinions from elected officials without joining the conversation, then there is a bigger problem.
And I am not saying they were negligent in their duties, but to blame a single person isn't right either.
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Tim Carmichael wrote: If the parent allows their child to get all of their opinions from elected officials w
I think I haven't been clear enough in my screed - their child didn't get this from an elected official - it is the education system that has done this - he is 7 years old.
It is amazing how even small changes to the curriculum have a big effect. In the Middle East it is the norm to use education to cement the idea of countries created by western powers (principally us & the French) along arbitrary lines as being legitimate & having an identity. As Jordanians, the in-laws would have seen this as normal.
Alberto Brandolini: The amount of energy necessary to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it.
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Rob Philpott wrote: I wonder how many of these children even knew the role of a Central Bank.
Isn't that the thing they kept talking about during the crisis?
The internets tell me:
The primary function of a central bank is to manage the nation's money supply (monetary policy), through active duties such as managing interest rates, setting the reserve requirement, and acting as a lender of last resort to the banking sector during times of bank insolvency or financial crisis. That doesn't sound like something I should know before voting.
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I don't think it's a good idea for 16 year olds to vote as a matter of course.
I think it is a very good thing for 16 year olds to be able to vote in a referendum on the future of their country, and it must be really galling that 16-55 year olds voted with quite a convincing margin for independence, only to be denied the future they wanted by old people who have a pretty short future.
There's no guarantee that 16 and 17 year olds would vote for the SNP in a general election.
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