Too stupid to vote? That’s the Lefty view

ARE we seeing a new and highly dangerous stream of thought emerging from the Left? In conversation with a friend the other day, the subject of Brexit came up. He was a Remainer and is worried about the future and while I don’t agree with him, that is his right. But what he said next staggered me. “I don’t think some people should be allowed to make these decisions as they’re not intelligent enough.” He and I went to the same university so I’m guessing he’d still allow me into the ballot box but what is this? Suffrage based on IQ?

And this is the second time I’ve heard someone come out with this kind of opinion in as many months. The first time was when an individual opined that some people shouldn’t be allowed to make decisions about the future of the country because they don’t understand what’s good for them. Maybe they don’t but we do still live in a democracy, which means the majority gets to decide. But what is so extraordinary is that both of these men are decent people, kind to animals and their mothers, good sorts, and yet they are also coming out with the kind of stuff more commonly associated with the USSR.

But what they also have in common is that they are both on the political Left. I know people on the Right who wanted Britain to remain in the EU but I have never heard them speaking like this. This idea that people are just too dumb to be allowed a voice, let alone a vote, is coming from the Left and is far, far more dangerous than “populism”.

I can only think they are coming out with this stuff because they know there is no other way they will get what they want. The ghastly Corbyn and his crew will never get anywhere near Number 10, so take away the vote from the masses altogether seems to be the thinking, because the masses simply won’t vote for the right people.

Stalin would have been proud.

THAT MADWOMAN SLUR

I FIRST came across the phrase “madwoman” when I read George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda. It was used by the sadistic and cruel Henleigh Grandcourt. I subsequently discovered that it’s a phrase quite commonly employed by a certain type of man, usually when the woman they are talking about doesn’t agree with them.

The financier Arpad Busson is the latest: his ex-amour Uma Thurman, left, with whom he is fighting for custody of their daughter, had a “serious mental illness”, he said. I’m sure that all Hollywood actresses are mad as a bat in a hat but the fact is that the couple did spend seven years together on and off and he didn’t complain then.

Could this outburst possibly be related to the fact that she is now in a relationship with someone else?