You can't force people to vote.
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After the referendum,should 16yo get the vote ?
- Thread starter Leekbrookgull
- Start date
You can't force people to vote.
Is it not going to become a legal requirement for full time education till 18 soon?
We seem to take responsibility away (no job, stay at school, most stay at Uni till 21 on a student loan, drive them everywhere at stupid hours), let them come back home and live for a tenner a week, but we think it sensible to give them the vote at 16!
Not sure who is more stupid, parent or child?
Cheshire Cat
The most curious thing..
Harsh, but fair if he insists on trying to vote via the interweb - his PC clearly won't be able to cope with the complexity.
OK, strictly speaking you can't but you know what I mean. Vote or you get a fine is anything but democratic.
Creaky
Well-known member
If the majority voted for such a system then it would be democratic ;-)
Pogue Mahone
Well-known member
- Apr 30, 2011
- 10,733
I lived in Italy for a while, and there was an election while I was there (1987?) People not only had to vote, but they had to do it in the city that they came from. I was in Northern Italy, and it was full of Southern Italians working there - life was relatively tough in the South (still is, if truth be told). There was a mass exodus - everybody travelled to their family home to vote. To say that resentment was tangible is a bit of an understatement.
Making people vote is as bad as denying people the vote.
Fair points.
About 300 hundred years ago, 15000 people, all toffs, had the right to vote and justified it on the basis that every one else was too stupid to understand the real issues.
The tens of thousands of brave men that were slaughtered in the trenches of the first world war, had never experienced the ability to vote and were considered too stupid to to understand the real issues. Clever enough to die for the establishment, but not clever enough to have a say in the establishment.
Only after hundreds of years of struggle were working class men able to influence the tory toffs and start pressing for votes for women, sadly, women were considered too stupid to understand the real issues.
When it was proposed that 18 year olds should get the vote, guess what, they were considered too inexperienced to understand the real issues.
It is always the establishment that are against the expansion of suffrage because they deem it as a loss of their ancient inherited power to rule.
The tens of thousands of brave men that were slaughtered in the trenches of the first world war, had never experienced the ability to vote and were considered too stupid to to understand the real issues. Clever enough to die for the establishment, but not clever enough to have a say in the establishment.
Only after hundreds of years of struggle were working class men able to influence the tory toffs and start pressing for votes for women, sadly, women were considered too stupid to understand the real issues.
When it was proposed that 18 year olds should get the vote, guess what, they were considered too inexperienced to understand the real issues.
It is always the establishment that are against the expansion of suffrage because they deem it as a loss of their ancient inherited power to rule.
Long post, found to be a waste of time in the last paraphrase. (You would not know a paragraph obviously).
Would you like to comment on the contents of the post rather than appointing yourself as head of the NSC grammar hit squad?
Perhaps you are a perfect example of people who are desperate to prove your superiority over others and thus have the right to select who can vote and who can't?
BensGrandad
New member
Good job nobody takes any notice of you then isnt it.
Kaiser_Soze
Who is Kaiser Soze??
- Apr 14, 2008
- 1,355
People can vote or they can abstain if they don't wish to you a vote. There's no reason why people shouldn't be compelled to register a vote of some sort. It's compulsory in Australia.
GingerBeerMan
3-0
- Dec 29, 2011
- 8,024
Based on your posts on this forum, I know many, many sixteen year-olds who are more well-placed to vote than you.
BensGrandad
New member
Do I show my true colours on here No I play to the crowd to keep people posting as anybody who knows me would tell you.
£1.99
Well-known member
- Mar 3, 2008
- 1,191
Shame this doesn't apply to you!
Blackadder
Brighton Bhuna Boy
Good thread.
Normally I would say no but I don't think this is cut and dried.
When I was 16, in the 6th form, I was borderline Communist. I had a weekend job at the local hospital and whilst I didn't pay tax, I did pay National Insurance.
Move on a couple of years and I got a job in Lloyds Bank and was old enough to have the vote. The first General Election came up and, to my eternal regret, I voted Maggie Thatcher in (I voted against in all subsequent elections). To be fair, The Callaghan labour govt were all over the place.
Anyway, back to topic. I moved from extreme left to extreme right in a couple of years. I am now slightly left of centre, like many I know.
Generally, I think 16 is too young but if He/She is working and paying taxes.... I am not so sure.
Normally I would say no but I don't think this is cut and dried.
When I was 16, in the 6th form, I was borderline Communist. I had a weekend job at the local hospital and whilst I didn't pay tax, I did pay National Insurance.
Move on a couple of years and I got a job in Lloyds Bank and was old enough to have the vote. The first General Election came up and, to my eternal regret, I voted Maggie Thatcher in (I voted against in all subsequent elections). To be fair, The Callaghan labour govt were all over the place.
Anyway, back to topic. I moved from extreme left to extreme right in a couple of years. I am now slightly left of centre, like many I know.
Generally, I think 16 is too young but if He/She is working and paying taxes.... I am not so sure.
Wrong-Direction
Well-known member
- Mar 10, 2013
- 13,417
Just like a lot of adults..?
drew
Drew
Do 16 yr olds fight for their country? Thought you had to be 18 to serve on the front line!
The Buttery Biscuit Base
New member
Maybe I'm missing your joke, but how can you mess up a yes/no referendum?
There isn't a right or wrong answer.