Should over 70 year olds be banned from voting in referendum to decide the country future

Grab a teenager while they still know it all.

But remember that age brings experience, so the oldies may have seen the problem before and know the solution.

Also, at 70 you could still have 30 years ahead of you.
In three years time SOMEONE will need to send a telegram to the Queen!

Age should be an attitude of mind not just a timescale.
Remember the tale about the young bull and the old bull!

SueDonim

No taxation without representation! I'll stop voting when I no longer have to pay tax.

Agree, and as I am still paying taxes , will do the same, went to vote yesterday.

humptydumpty

But Callistemon, since the referendum there are a lot more young people who could vote if we had a second referendum, whose voices should be heard.

Then they should have listened first time, no good crying over spilt milk when they could have had their way 1st time.

This thread title reminded me of a time when a young man from the local council came to the Luncheon Club I helped run for “Young at Heart” people, who were mostly in their 80s & 90s. They had to put coloured stickers onto a list of suggested community facilities, to show which they’d most like. They all took part dutifully. As soon as the young man departed one said, “Dunt matter much what we think anyway, I s’pect we’ll be dead by the time they get round to doin’ any on ‘em”.

Asian people respect their older people because they have the sense to realise that they have learnt a lot. The attitude is palpably different to our some of the nastier Anglo Saxon values. They also look after their older folk and wouldn’t dream of packing them off to homes.

One word answer. NO!!!

I was at a party in London the weekend immediately following the Brexit referendum. I was 55 at the time.

There were around half a dozen folks in their 20's there who were very upset about the result and they very strongly felt that anyone over 50 should not have been allowed a vote on the referendum.

I voted Remain myself and was in sympathy with them......but.....if you start disenfranchising people who you dont think are going to vote the way you want them to, where does it end?

One only needs to look at current Trumpian efforts in the US to make the case that votes for the opposition were illegal.

Scary stuff

This is old news, from over a year ago, resuscitated a month ago and now again - and it was only SOME youngsters who thought this - 300 of the 2013 who replied to the online questionnaire, itself a self-selected sample, not a representative one. Plus, the "poll" was badly designed and the reporting of it highly selective.

As I posted a month ago -

1) There is reporting bias - Only this question is reported on, not other questions in the poll, such as the ones on the Brexit vote-

^Q18. In matters of potential major permanent change such as Brexit there should have to be a majority of the vote in each of the four nations of the UK separately, as well as in the UK as a whole, in order for the change to take place. 63% yes 37% no.

Q20b. Regardless of how you answered the last question, {which items should be on the ballot paper} do you think there should be a new referendum on Brexit?
59% yes, 39% no^

How come those newspapers (Sun, Express) don't mention these results, yet make headlines of the 32% yes, 68% no, "disenfranchise the over-70s" one?

Once again when a "shock poll" apears, we need to consider -
2) How many people were consulted for this survey? 2013 [not a lot, and out of those only about 300 were under 34 ]
3) How were they chosen? The poll was online. (That is, they were self-selected by those who had an axe to grind, and were computer literate - so not many over-70s were asked their views, then.)
4) Exactly what questions were asked, and how were they worded? See the detailed results here for them - www.drg.global/our-work/political-polls/wings-over-scotland-poll-11th-october-2019/
5) What was the choice of answers? Limited
6) Who is reporting on the poll? The Sun, the Scottish Sun, The Express. All papers who like a nice sensational headline.

Well said!

I thought a lot of Remainers listened to their grandchildren when it came to voting in the Referendum.
Should they not be listened to now?

It's fine to listen to each other and consider different points of view.
That's not the same as being completely excluded.

I think the point is (quite reasonably IMO) that the future direction of the country is going to have a much longer-lasting impact on the younger generations than it is on over-70s - true, surely?

Over 70s will take this into account, surely?
I see many people posting online that their political decisions are shaped by what they hope will be a good future for their grandchildren.

Possibly. I am older although not retired. Some of my opinions are outdated and don't suit modern life.

By being so offensive eazybee, you have unfortunately scored a bit of an own goal, proving the point of many young people.

If all seventy -year olds or those approaching it were as unbalanced and biased in their political judgements as Paddy anne appears to be, there might be some justification for removing their entitlement to vote.

Fortunately, very few are.

The poem resonates with me as well maddyone once we start down this road there will be end to it.

Same here, I agree , everyone over the legal voting age is equally entitled to a vote

Why? Utterly stupid idea , more reasonable to ban under 21’s with little or no life experience so cannot make sensible decisions.
What group would be discriminated against next?

I was not old enough to vote in referendum about joining the common market. Glad I got to vote in Brexit referendum. Everyone older than 18 should be able to vote. A younger persons vote is not more important than an older persons views. All views should be equally respected.

I f I was 18 and looking at the mess the world is in I might be one of those who think over 70.s have done enough damage.Look around at your "great" Britain and see what decades of bad management and sheer criminality of successive governments have done .My part of this "union" haven't voted for a majority of tories since the mid 1950's thats over half a century ago and yet we get lumbered with them time after time .
The circus thats in place now at Downing Street has reached an all time low ,with incompetent ,lying crooks
Are the Tories on here proud or bitterly ashamed of what they voted for?.
Maybe we need to step back and let the people who will be affected for the longest time take the reins .NOT that I've ever voted for any unionist party so I absolve myself of blame .....lol

Democracy is the wisdom of crowds.

It's no longer the country I once knew and loved So no !

maddyone that poem holds a very important message.
Dottynan NO : no age group should be excluded from voting (except under 18’s).

maddyone

Ha ha Ooopsminty, very true.

Of course 70+ people should vote. I’m not yet 70 but I still think they should vote. I agree with what Varian says, many older people are making extremely valuable contributions to society. Many are still working. It is indeed dangerous to disenfranchise certain groups from taking an active part in our society, very dangerous indeed.

First they came for the communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

Thanks for this; it's something that I always try not to follow, i.e. I try to speak up for people without a voice or who are not heard normally.
Everybody of adult age should have a vote on everything, otherwise it can get very dangerous as more and more people are excluded in voting because a precedent has been set.
When the result of Scotland's vote for independence was announced I was on holiday in Turkey and there was a Scottish woman on holiday in the same hotel who said that they should not have allowed foreigners living in Scotland to have a vote?! I asked why as maybe they were working and paying their taxes and she reluctantly agreed with me that it would be unfair. She was very upset by the vote result. This was a woman who didn't actually live in Scotland any more and had been living in New Zealand and Australia but still thought that she should have had a say.

This is old news from a year ago. I'll repeat my posts from above, because events since then have shown that "divide and conquer" is a tactic still being used, to great effect! -

"Do read ALL the questions in the poll, such as -

Q18. In matters of potential major permanent change such as Brexit there should have to be a majority of the vote in each of the four nations of the UK separately, as well as in the UK as a whole, in order for the change to take place. 63% yes 37% no.

Q20b. Regardless of how you answered the last question, {which items should be on the ballot paper} do you think there should be *a new referendum on Brexit?*
59% yes, 39% no

How come those newspapers (Sun, Express) don't mention these results, yet make headlines of the 32% yes, 68% no "disenfranchise the over-70s" one?

Once again when a "shock poll" apears, we need to consider -
How many people were consulted for this survey? 2013 [not a lot!]
How were they selected? Online (That is, they were self-selected by those who had an axe to grind, and were computer literate - not many over-70s were asked their views, then.)
Exactly what questions were asked, and how were they worded? See the detailed results here for them - www.drg.global/our-work/political-polls/wings-over-scotland-poll-11th-october-2019/
What was the choice of answers? Limited
Who is reporting on the poll? The Sun, the Scottish Sun, The Express. So far.

I am definitely NOT a conspiracy theorist, yet I do wonder whether the seeds of resentment are deliberately being sown and the seedlings watered by those with an interest in the destabilisation of the country, for their own advantage.

I would look East, to Putin who has successfully dabbled in US politics and is known to have an aim to defeat the West and capitalism on all fronts. When the dust has settled on Brexit and on all the inter-generational and other internal conflicts that are so disturbing us, a lot may emerge that is not visible now.

Who would have thought that a Republican candidate for the US presidency would be associated with aides who were consorting with a foreign power to influence internal politics?

I’m not voting - they can shove it! When we were kids we all knew better than our parents, so why shouldn’t youngsters today be any different.

Agree with varian's first comment. Interesting recent comment too varian

I'm sure there are many 70+ year olds (that's me) would have something to say about youngsters. Seventy per cent of COVIT-19 cases in Exeter were linked to the university, making it a regional hotspot. Police are still having to break up big parties in the halls of residence.

No, of course not. Some over 70s might just have the wisedom of their years!