Jeremy Paxman says 'no votes for pensioners'

I have to say I like Paxo. I read his autobiography recently and was surprised how self-deprecating he was.

He was/is a brilliant interviewer but I can also see that he is becoming even more cantankerous.

The article in the DM was interesting as Paxo made some interesting points. It’s important to realise that his views were made as part of a debate at a debating society. The whole point of this is that the two speakers take opposing views, irrespective of their own personal opinions.

I can remember having to debate for fox hunting when I personally am totally against it - an example only and not trying to start a whole other thread!

I have to say I was very disappointed when I read that Jezza had gone of with his younger assistant. There’s no fool like an old fool springs to mind.

I agree with you Trisher (yesterday; 15.25) but that is another worthy debate! Gransnetters have picked up on the 'solution' as being worse by implication than the problem (which I dont deny and yes it needs sorting asap) and therefore not a legacy we would want to leave our children.

It is a thin-end-of-the-wedge population cleansing. This is taking responsibility? Letting younger people think this is an OK way to proceed? What we MODEL is what we leave our kids. They need a template for how to be. Suggesting this to them is repugnant - teaching them people are worth less when they get older. Dear me.

Hi paddyann...when I said older people were wiser I positioned it against the qualifier that 64% however voted for Brexit - so as I saw it not true. lazy shorthand of me. ButI was also pointing to the fact that a healthy society would hold its elders in respect: It makes sense and should be encouraged, after all we are all heading for it and who wants to head for utter irrelevancy? So it was a yoking of those two incompatible beliefs that confused.

Yes Trisher you're right no doubt but denying over 65s the vote doesn't cure it but rather comes across as a punishment or a shaming tactic. Is that what you want to model to younger people as a way to conduct politics and social reform?

Lots of personal accusations on here but still no discussion on social problems and the society we leave to our GCs. Tells you a lot doesn't it.

Not really, the older generation ruining life for the young theme is as old as the hills. I am from the 60s generation, we were just as aggrieved and sanctimonious as the current young generation.

Our lives have not been a bed of roses. Remember 10 - 15% interest rates on mortgages and 20% inflation?

Raise current mortgage rates to 12% and watch house prices plummet wiping out all that gain we made over the years - and youngsters would still have problems making mortgage payments because so much of it would be interest.

Every generation finds it difficult to begin with, but every generation has different problems. My parents had to risk their lives and live through a world war and so did my grandparents.

Paxmans being ridiculous. The way things are going nobody will want to vote- we voted to leave and it's turned out to be a process that has taken far too long with too many people behaving as sore losers. I have been a supporter of Teresa May but she needs to get tougher. The EU are making too many demands on us - make some back ! They need us, look how many big companies (not to mention the small ones) have a huge market in the uk. Over 65's make up a massive portion of the voting community with more life experience than many others.

I read about it in the Times on Wednesday

Paxman always was an arrogant, self important git. We are just lucky that he doesn’t have a say in who does or does not have a vote.

Are you calling GNers ‘Reactionary Farts’ trisher ?RF?
Tut tut. Or is RF some new buzzword?

trisher

What's RF's?

"Lots of personal accusations on here but still no discussion on social problems and the society we leave to our GCs. Tells you a lot doesn't it. "

It tells you bugger all , other than some are posting regarding the view of Paxman that once you hit 65 you should loose the right to vote irrespective of your sex , political persuasion simply because you are on your last legs and have nothing to contribute.

Lots of personal accusations on here but still no discussion on social problems and the society we leave to our GCs. Tells you a lot doesn't it.
A good idea for a thread *trisher^.

I will not surrender my vote, I will chain myself to the railings first.

No POGS if you and the other RFs lose their votes I will happily surrender mine.
Lots of personal accusations on here but still no discussion on social problems and the society we leave to our GCs. Tells you a lot doesn't it.
Actually, it is, because we have failed to recognise the consequences of our behaviour.
Ostriches-sand!

Well, trisher - if you think you messed up then I will not argue with you.

I think the word is fascism.
If I am to be corrected on that (and I probably will be), then it is Nazism.

"He is saying you don't deserve a vote because you vote purely from personal interest and with no social conscience whatsoever. And it seems most of the posts on here show he is right."

He is generalising trisher and he includes you in his thinking.

Unless of course as I suspect there is a form of narcissism that 'some' do not include themselves from having the right to vote being taken away when they reach 65 because they think they are somehow better than others.

You are saying you understand his position but believe it should only apply to those who do not vote as you do.

There's a word for that and it is not democracy!

That presumably would include you trisher?

What a load of codswallop.
Presumably Jeremy Paxman speaks for himself and not for the majority.

Every generation makes a mess of some kind or another Morgana - should that mean they should lose their franchise because some - not all messed up?

Perhaps JP should forfeit his huge salary from the BBC and start campaigning for no licence - there are some people who have actually been criminalised to pay his huge salary and that is truly disgusting.
I hope he feels ashamed.

So, trisher and Morgana enjoying those hair shirts?
You won’t be voting at the next GE I take it, as the future is not yours you know!

Quite right Trish er!

Morgana

So do you think we / you should stop having the right to vote at 65?

He is saying you messed up and should take responsibility POGS you don't. He is saying the society that helped us is one we have abandoned. As I said post about society as it is now. Are there more homeless? Are there families in B&B accommodation? Are there people providing vital public services suffering because their wages are not keeping pace with changing prices?
He is saying you don't deserve a vote because you vote purely from personal interest and with no social conscience whatsoever. And it seems most of the posts on here show he is right.

Sad that so many people seem to fail to understand what a mess our generation has made. The younger generations have had it hard and will continue to have it harder. I'm not talking about myself, my friends or neighbours. The rich continue to get richer, the poor poorer. A. I. will take away hundreds of thousands of jobs, we have polluted the planet to the point of no return and the animals are dying out in droves. It happened on our watch!!!!

trisher 19.20

Your post to me is your long held opinion of anybody that does not hold the same opinion, thought, politics as you do.

To be honest your reasoning is pure partisan politics when the point Paxman is making crosses political persuasion he is saying because you reached the age of 65.

As I said if anybody believes Paxman has a point or agrees with him then follow your conviction, be principled and don't vote. I wouldn't mind betting however those who agree with Paxman would most likely be the first to holler it is their democratic right to vote on another occasion if it ever came about.

Virtue signalling or Principle? You takes yer pick.

If Paxman gets his way Trisher it won’t just be “reactionary old farts” who will be disenfranchised, it will be all of us.

trisher exactly what is the 'real' world? Usually it means the world the person using the word lives in to the exclusion of all those who think differently.

Democracy is democracy, every one over a certain age has the right to vote no matter how much we may dislike there views on life. Anything that limits that right to vote is not democracy.

Oh - and some of us paid for their DC through university, we're not that old to give them the opportunities we didn't have - the rest is down to them to grasp those opportunities.

Which I am very pleased to say that my DC have done.