Off Topic Political Debate

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/votes-16-year-olds-just-11462447

More unacceptable shenanigans from the panicking Tory party to stop the proposed votes for 16/17 year-olds - many of whom would have more nous & decency than the majority of Tories. Shameful...

 

16 & 17 year olds are too young to vote. The Conservatives were correct in not supporting the move to lower the voting age. Many of those that fall for the Comrade Corbyn spin will undoubtedly grow out of it as they become older and more experienced. No wonder most of those that have had a lifetime of experience of Labour failures prefer the Tories.

 

It cannot be that difficult to see that very few of any age will be supporting the Tories in the next election whenever it comes. As a friend who is 75 said only yesterday, "I have always voted for them, but never again." Experience of the older voter tells them this is not the Tory party of old, but a second rate bunch of self serving politicians who do not actually care what happens to the country as long as they can continue to live the life they wish. As my friend said, only a few will believe them for much longer. Very sad to see it is taking some longer than others to realize what is actually happening.

 

The old, rather decent, Toryism of the 60s has long gone it's just that some people are very slow in realizing it. Though it is noticeable that there are very few Tory voters aged over 100. If we wait long enough they will all wither away - the average age of party members is over 60 so one day there will not be enough of them to cover more than the odd village council.

 

67% of 18-65 year olds say they will not vote for the Tories if there were to be an election soon. From the huge support that May thought she had before the last election, it has vanished like dew in a strong sun. A no majority PM fighting against a split government, is in a no win situation.

 

The party whip has been suspended from Tory MP Charlie Elphicke following him being referred to the police over 'serious allegations'...

Dropping like flies they are.

 

I'd say there are very few voters of any sort over 100 and in most cases we won't have to wait too long before they wither away The parish councils in this part of the world can be fairly odd but many of the members are working folk in their 30s and 40s and sadly a fair number of them are staunchly Conservative.

 

May had huge support before the last election, the Tories had an exceptionally good result in the local elections.

The Lib Dems have been reduced to a tiny protest party again and The Labour Party remains split between the MP's that gave Corbyn a vote of no confidence and the infiltration of the extreme left wing Momentum. The Labour leaders only have a small pool of MP's to choose for their senior positions, it certainly shows up their obvious limitations.

 

I was a Parish Councillor for thirty years, and throughout that time only ever stood as an Independent. Yes there was a leaning towards a centre right form of financial management, but we had a limited budget and had to think of the people on very limited means as well as those better off. There can be times when an injection of cash is the right thing to do, and we had to borrow to do it, but a constant squeeze does not make for a better life for the bulk of people. We once had a person elected who stood for the Labour party and he resigned after a year because he didn't recognize the restraints that we worked under. We had people of all political views, but the overall objective was to provide a service however much it was taken for granted. The fact that we had the best turnout for an annual parish meeting in the whole district did make me believe that we somehow engaged with our voters, something that seems lacking on a national scale today.

 

May didn't have huge support when it mattered otherwise she wouldn't have lost the majority she had. Other parties are having their own problems, but they are not in government trying to run the country. With the rapid loss of support for this government she will be lucky to see the term out.

 

One of the usual arguments against allowing 16/17 year olds the vote is that many won't bother voting. They have the vote here, and it didn't affect the turn-out in the last election, but that might have been partly novelty value. It will be interesting in our elections in May with the new set of youngsters now entitled to vote.

 

Given that large numbers of adults regularly fail to vote in elections, I can't really see that that is a valid argument though.

The simple answer would be to, like Australia, make voting compulsory. Whilst I'm slightly surprised that it isn't already the case here, given the control freak nature of UK governments over the years, I guess it may never be introduced as it would doubtless be less than beneficial to the status quo of The Establishment.

 

The Tories are certainly not firing on all cylinders but the only opposition is a largely split Labour Party. The Labour leadership does not possess the nous for choosing policies which are broadly supported across the political spectrum, unlike during Blair's time in office. It is possible for the Tories to last the full term then who knows what will happen. As a rule the UK electorate do not generally like their ruling political party to serve more than three terms. Hopefully the turmoil in the Labour Party will continue until the next GE.

 

You seem to be taking the view that although your team is in the relegation area, hey it doesn't matter, there is a team doing even worse than us.

 

They have this in Belgium as well BB. At least voting itself is not compulsory, but it is compulsory to register at the voting centre on polling day - and, having done that, most will subsequently vote. The penalties for not doing this are firstly a fine, and after the third case of this they.........lose their voting rights for 5 years

In my opinion all people who are required to pay taxes should have the right to vote in all elections, regardless of their nationality - 'No taxation without representation' and all that.

 

That sums it up rather well. The other team has a couple of leading rubbish players like Kabba and Ellington!!!

 

Now that you have come out to admit that your political team is performing so badly, I am sure you must be feeling a lot better. When will you start to call for a new manager?

 

If I was responsible for choosing the top positions in the Tory Party I would probably have several different choices, certainly more Brexiters. As I'm not, the UK has to work with what we currently have. The present government contains ministers with vast experience and has a great supply of talent in the younger MP intake. The alternative of a Labour government is so horrendous to contemplate, it would lead to a huge loss of investment and entrepreneurs.
Corbyn is much better suited studying manhole covers than a responsible job in actual government.

Without a credible alternative your constant bitching about the UK government is simply a waste of your time.

 

That didn't take long for you to realize that you were casting doubt on the ability of the government. I had a couple of hours this last week when I was able to watch the debate in the commons on the release of the "secret documents". At one point your great mate Redwood stood up and delivered one of his hissy fits. The opposition were laughing to his face, which spurred him on to become more and more extreme. What he didn't realize was that the people on the benches behind and to the side of him were also laughing at his rant. Even Cash and Rees-Mogg found him funny. Be careful that you don't become the Redwood of this forum.

 

Can't stop, just going out to a great music venue locally.

I would rather be compared to Redwood than somebody your recent whinges remind me of, Dennis Skinner. You really should try to find something more constructive to do with your time.