Heartofice Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 This isn't really about voting ages (though really 16 year olds are mostly total idiots and we shouldn't give them any voting rights, but I take the point that there are quite a lot of other older idiots) Scotland thinks it's a good idea to somehow have 16 year old MPs.. I wouldn't let a 16 year old run my local McDonalds never mind put them in charge of running a town/city/country. Honestly though, I bet if Boris had come out with this idea everyone here would be sniggering and laughing at it, but because its Sturgeon, you suddenly have people scratch their chins and go 'oh that sounds like a sensible idea, hmm yes there must be something in it!'. This is just like the old 'apologising for burning witches' thing from a few weeks ago. It's pretty bizarre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanF Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 11 hours ago, A wilding said: Perhaps not unrelated: in the last year or so I have gained substantial anecdotal understanding that there are a significant number of elderly people out there who have demonstrably completely lost track of current events and are manifestly unable to make any meaningful judgment of our current crop of politicians. Some of these people have been diagnosed as having cognitive disorders. Some of them are even MPs, like Crispin Blunt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 2 hours ago, BigFatCoward said: I'm not against 16 year olds voting, but I've never understood this argument. How does getting horny and fucking behind asda prepare you for making informed decisions? Given 52% - including a lot of the elderly population - voted for Brexit largely on the opinion of a serial liar and clown, I’m not sure 16 year olds could make much worse decisions Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 Before we all start hyperventilating, the legal age to stand as an MP has been 18 since 2006. It's always been 18 for the Scottish Parliament, I believe. Yet the aforementioned Mhairi Black is still the youngest person ever elected to either role at 20 years old (and 237 days). Only 21 MPs of 650 elected are under 30, and only 6 MSPs from 129. Average age in both parliaments is 51. I take what is probably a different philosophical view from DMC, in that I believe if you're eligible to vote in an election you should be eligible to stand: people should qualify for the franchise fully, there should not be any 'second class' group of voters. But I do understand the arguments against that position. The point is, in practice this won't lead to the Scottish Parliament being taken over by a wave of MSPs who're still at school. It's a minor change unlikely to make much difference to the makeup of the Parliament. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 I mean the real reason it's happening is so that Sturgeon can try and garner as much support as she can from actual children for an independence referendum. But as you say, it's yet another pointless action that has almost no real world application or effect.. a bit like apologising to witches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Varysblackfyre321 Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 50 minutes ago, Heartofice said: Scotland thinks it's a good idea to somehow have 16 year old MPs.. Do you think they’re especially likely to succeed? 50 minutes ago, Heartofice said: I wouldn't let a 16 year old run my local McDonalds never mind put them in charge of running a town/city/country. Then simply don’t vote for them. I imagine you’ve never voted for an 18 year old running for political office or plan to. outside of high school of course. 50 minutes ago, Heartofice said: Honestly though, I bet if Boris Ease it with the persecution complex dude. Its a good idea that many on the left or socially progressive crowd wouldn’t disagree with just because a conservative leader proposed it—especially since it’d serve their interests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Varysblackfyre321 Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 21 minutes ago, Heartofice said: I mean the real reason it's happening is so that Sturgeon can try and garner as much suppor Yeah, and the reasons you don’t want an expansion of suffrage is because doing so would hurt your side’ grip on power and ability to fight your culture wars. But those are awful reasons quite frankly imho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 That doesn't even make sense. 16 year olds can already vote in the referendum. Possibly some might be more motivated to vote Yes in the referendum by being made eligible to stand in an entirely different vote, but I doubt it's a significant number. Perhaps, and this might seem a stretch, but perhaps Nicola Sturgeon simply agrees with me that you should be able to stand in any election you can vote in? Maybe she just thinks this is the right thing to do? In that respect, I do agree it would be a bit like apologising for the historic persecution of innocent women. I tend to think I'd rather have a government that does stuff like that rather than the convoluted not-really-a-loan scheme of £200 towards your fuel bill that does nothing to help fuel poverty, a 5p cut in fuel tax that was pocketed by the petrol companies and didn't result in pump prices coming down one bit, voter ID that is proven to deter more valid votes than it does invalid ones but we have to have it anyway for reasons, and all the various wastes of time the UK government are engaged in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Varysblackfyre321 Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 16 hours ago, Maltaran said: In more blatant Tory-bashing, one of their MPs is now a convicted pedophile Imran Ahmad Khan: MP guilty of sex assault on 15-year-old boy https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-61026348 Wait a minute I just realized this is the story that got HOI complaining about Sturgeon advocating for an expansion of suffrage. Hench immediately afterwards he cries both sides have their flaws and deflecting conversation away from something that shows a Tory mp as unequivocally scum. This is the worst bothsidism I’ve seen in a while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Varysblackfyre321 Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 17 minutes ago, mormont said: Perhaps, and this might seem a stretch, but perhaps Nicola Sturgeon simply agrees with me that you should be able to stand in any election you can vote in? Maybe she just thinks this is the right thing to do? In that respect, I do agree it would be a bit like apologising for the historic persecution of innocent women. It’s silly to suppose Sturgeon and any political figure in favor of this are doing this because they’re evil child-exploiters. Like that Tory pedophile Imran khan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derfel Cadarn Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 More Brexit winning Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 11 minutes ago, Derfel Cadarn said: More Brexit winning P&O Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiko Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 3 minutes ago, Heartofice said: P&O As he said. More brexit winning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heartofice Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 5 minutes ago, kiko said: As he said. More brexit winning. Again. Not Brexit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 Meanwhile in another devolved assembly, the mainland UK may be repeating the mistake of not paying a lot of attention to affairs in Northern Ireland that may prove to be ground-shaking: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2022/apr/12/what-a-sinn-fein-win-would-mean-northern-ireland-elections Quote Northern Irish politics are on the brink of an inflection point on 5 May if the latest polling proves correct, ending a century in which the largest party in Northern Irish politics has come from the unionist community. Instead Sinn Féin, a party that campaigns for a united Ireland, seems likely to win a historic victory, becoming the largest party in Stormont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Posted April 12, 2022 Author Share Posted April 12, 2022 18 hours ago, Maltaran said: In more blatant Tory-bashing, one of their MPs is now a convicted pedophile Imran Ahmad Khan: MP guilty of sex assault on 15-year-old boy https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-61026348 Crispin Blunt, the conservative MP for Reigate, then coming out and defending a convicted pedophile was certainly not what I thought was going to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanF Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 20 minutes ago, mormont said: Meanwhile in another devolved assembly, the mainland UK may be repeating the mistake of not paying a lot of attention to affairs in Northern Ireland that may prove to be ground-shaking: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/ng-interactive/2022/apr/12/what-a-sinn-fein-win-would-mean-northern-ireland-elections I think Sinn Fein will top the poll, but will also lose votes and seats compared to 2017. The big winners are likely to be Alliance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Varysblackfyre321 Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 23 minutes ago, Raja said: Crispin Blunt, the conservative MP for Reigate, then coming out and defending a convicted pedophile was certainly not what I thought was going to happen. Has the party leadership party come out and explicitly condemned and canceled blunt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveSumm Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 26 minutes ago, Raja said: Crispin Blunt, the conservative MP for Reigate, then coming out and defending a convicted pedophile was certainly not what I thought was going to happen. I can’t imagine what his defence even is? He doesn’t really say. Also he goes with the classic non-apology of “I’m sorry my actions caused you to be upset”… classy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spockydog Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 50 Partygate fines being issued today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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