Would sweet 16 be our lucky number?
Theresa May knows just how Justin Trudeau is feeling right now. The Canadian PM won his second term last week but fell 13 seats short of an overall majority.
Mrs May’s been there, done that in 2017, and she managed to screw up even without slapping on blackface to look like Aladdin or sing the Banana Boat Song.
Butter-fingered Boris Johnson has lost even more MPs than Mrs May did, and the PM now needs 34 nonTories to win any Commons vote. An election may not sort this mess out.
One solution MPs are considering to break this deadlock is expanding the electorate by 1.4 million by giving 16-year-olds the vote. This can’t happen overnight, but as our firstpast- the- post electoral system means just 200,000 votes in marginal constituencies make the difference, their contribution would be significant. The SNP are very keen because over-16s already vote for the Scottish Parliament. They also join ballots in the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey. It’s the voting age in
Argentina and d Austria, and in Bosnia for 16-year-olds who are working and paying taxes rather than swotting away at school. Which strikes me as no bad criterion for giving them the franchise.
Vatican City has a maximum voting age of 79 but no minimum, so theoretically teenagers could choose the next Pope – though I appreciate that 16-year-old cardinals are thin on the ground.
I used to be very much in favour of this change. Now I’m just mildly so because there are too many questions to be resolved first. If 16-year-olds are grown-up enough to choose who governs, they should also be able to decide whether to lie on a sunbed, place a bet, get a tattoo, smoke cigarettes, buy gin and tonics and obtain kitchen knives to add slices of lemon or lime.
You must be 18 now to do any of those things.
It’s true that 16- year- olds can marry with parental consent, but even that nod to maturity puts the UK at odds with UNICEF’s opposition to child brides.
But the trickiest part of making 16 the age of adulthood is that logic dictates that juvenile offenders should serve their sentences in adult prisons.
And I, for one, am uncomfortable with that.
So instead of fiddling around with the voting age before the implications are properly considered, MPs should force Johnson to become a PM more in the mould of Justin Trudeau.
Independent analysis shows the Canadian delivered, or is delivering, on 92 per cent of his promises.
No one says that of Boris.
If they can vote they should be able to bet or buy G&T
The most popular dish served in the Commons cafeteria, the Debate, is jerk chicken. Dominic Cummings had it for lunch on Tuesday. The Debate is self-clear, and everyone, including Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, does their bit to help staff. Everyone except Boris Johnson’s arrogant sidekick. His chicken bones stayed as the jerk went.