16 and 17 year olds can marry, enter the armed forces, have children - but they can't vote in the referendum, to help determine the future of their country, Scotland - the future that is in their hands.
The UK government, the Advocate General and the Leader of the Scottish Labour Party don't want them to vote - except in an AV referendum that nobody asked for and nobody wanted, the campaign for which was one of the dirtiest in a long time, and in which the Coalition 'partners' - Tory and LibDems fought like ferrets in a sack.
Anyone who thinks that the law isn't politicised in the UK should listen to Jim Wallace in this debate. An unelected Lord, a member of a party with 5 MSPs in Scotland - a party that, if there were a general election tomorrow, would be reduced to a rump in the UK - Lord Wallace is the legal watchdog of the Crown in Scotland.
And we know what he's watching for ...
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Part of Lord Wallace's argument against the inclusion of 16-18year olds was that the "same franchised electorate" that voted in the 2010 May election should be the only ones to vote in the referendum. I presume this will mean excluding all those who turn 18 between May 2010 - autumn 2014 according to the Lord's rationale? To be fair - by this time he had lathered himself into such a pet that had his brain been dynamite it would have failed to blow his hat off.
ReplyDeleteI missed the debate, so this is much valued recapping.
ReplyDeletePhew... my opinion of Lamont sinks further and further with every self-interested comment she makes.
N Sturgeon - "Just, not now". Shows Lamont up for being worse than Gray in my opinion.
Hypocrisy, oppotunism and Westminster blind faith leave a distinctly grubby taste in the mouth.
You're welcome, Stevie.
ReplyDeletePeter