The Liberal Democrats has long been home to some of Britain’s most unorthodox political thinking. But even Mr S was surprised by the radical suggestion of one former top aide on how to address intergenerational inequality. Speaking on the Times Radio election podcast, former Nick Clegg advisor Polly Mackenzie gave her thoughts on what constitutional reforms would benefit the country. One such initiative would be to, er, give babies the vote. The punchlines write themselves. Mackenzie told her fellow podcasters Lords Finkelstein and Mandelson that:
I’m just going to say something that you probably will all think I’m joking but I’m deadly serious which is that I think people should get votes from birth. I think there is no good reason to disenfranchise the under-18s at all and I would be happy to hold that vote in proxy until their child is, say, 10… There’s about 11 million people who can’t vote because they’re under 18 and that skews what the democratic system represents.
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