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. The democratic system is literally only capable of representing the views of the over-18s and the views of the over-18s about young people. And actually I think that a radical suggestion that anyone who is a citizen of this country should be entitled to be represented in the demographic balance of where the votes lie would be transformative. Sure, some people would vote just the way their parents voted and lots of people vote the way their wife votes or the way that their husband votes. And lots of people are stupid and lots of people are old and lots of people are lazy. We actually don’t hand out votes on the basis of how clever you are or any kind of test of intellectual capability. Why should we not give a vote to people under 18?
It was left to Lord Finkelstein to gently note the likely consequences of giving ten million more dependents the vote – namely that it would heighten the risk of bankrupting the state. But perhaps it’s the only way some Lib Dems think they can actually win power…
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