The 16 year old question

Apparently Keir Starmer believes that immature fuckwits will vote for him

A cunt, kneeling. A lot.

As yet another tedious election kicks off — in which all of the parties are heading in exactly the same authoritarian high-tax direction, just at different speeds — “Sir” Kneel-a-lot Starmer comes out of the gate with another stupid idea…

Over to a question on lowering the voting age, something Sir Keir Starmer has previously spoken supportively about and was included in the Labour party's manifesto in both 2015 and 2017.

When pressed on this specific point, the Labour leader says: "Yes, I want to see 16 and 17 year olds voting".

He explains that if these young people are able to go out and work - and if they are working, he notes, they are also paying taxes - they should also be able to vote.

He adds that these age groups are also able to sign up for for the Army.

"If you serve in your armed forces you ought to be able to vote."

Oh, OK. It seems that Sir Keir is wheeling out some principles to support his devious method of creating himself a new voter base, and he looks slightly uncomfortable doing it too. As Madeleine Grant savagely observed in The Telegraph recently, trying to establish Sir Kneel-a-lot’s beliefs is…

“… an ambitious goal; like trying to assess the guiding philosophy of a box of muesli.”

That aside, how many 16-17 year olds are paying taxes, exactly?

It’s actually quite difficult to find statistics on this particular cohort — they tend to be measured only as Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET). However, in England, thanks to the 2013 Raising the Participation Age legislation brought in by the Coalition — largely out of spite because “Dish-face” Cameron’s plan to re-introduce National Service was so spectacularly unpopular — 16-17 year olds are required to remain in education and training. Add to that the fact that only 18.5% of 18 year olds are in full-time employment, then you are left with a fairly thin justification of Starmer’s exciting voting age policy.

As sardonic comedian Simon Evans asserts, the attitude used to be that “children are a nuisance until they’re a resource”, and the Armchair General, you may not be surprised to know, favours young people going into the workforce and being productive as soon as humanly possible — for our benefit as well as theirs.

Unfortunately, twat-sponsored policies such as the aforementioned Raising the Participation Age laws, vast amounts of immigration (illegal but mostly especially legal), and Labour-sponsored economically illiterate policies such as the National Minimum Wage — which has, like much else, been made worse through being raised to extremely unwise heights by the Tories (as a cheap but immoral way of raising more taxes) — have substantially reduced the employment opportunities for the young and otherwise inexperienced.

As a substitute, the youth are expected to have their brains washed at inadequate Sixth Form Colleges and then finally scooped entirely out of their heads at sub-standard universities and ex-polytechnics — in the process accumulating no useful skills or knowledge, but a massive amount of ignorant bigotry and conveniently distant debt. To misquote the great Norman Tebbit, a young person today may well get on his bike and look for work [very Green, you see], and he can keep looking but he won’t find it.

Being able to vote has always been seen as the mark of adulthood: the theory is that you are now mature enough to read the Party Manifestos, to weigh up the pros and cons of what the various weasels are offering, and to vote in the best interests of both yourself and the country. Which is, of course, a bit of a joke, but let’s roll with it…

If someone is, indeed, adult enough to vote at the age of 16, I’m sure that nice Mr Starmer will screw his courage to the sticking post and harmonise the various ludicrous inconsistencies in our ages of consent. So, I look forward to the following to the Silent Knight undertaking the following:

• 16 year olds allowed to:

  • buy booze…

  • … and cigarettes, and other tobacco products;

  • obtain credit cards, loans, and a mortgage;

  • get married with or without parental consent;

  • learn to drive, and hold a full driving licence;

  • make a will;

  • have sex with anyone that they want (not just someone who is 16 or 17);

• repeal of Theresa May’s stupid law that means that, whilst a girl can have sex at 16 but she can be prosecuted if she sends a picture of her tits to her boyfriend.

• and fix a multitude of other inconsistencies.

This won’t happen, of course — Sir Kneel-a-lot won’t have the courage to allow his young voters to buy booze, and he fully supports Pissy Sunak’s stupid law to outlaw tobacco sales to younger people (and has declared his intention to enact it after the election has provided us with a brief reprieve).

In all seriousness, of course, the whole idea is stupid — largely because the majority of 18 year olds are stupid, and those younger are stupider.

But there is, of course, one aspect of the Silent Knight’s declaration that I do support:

He explains that if these young people are able to go out and work - and if they are working, he notes, they are also paying taxes - they should also be able to vote.

I agree — I agree that if you pay taxes, then you should be able to vote.

But only if you pay taxes.

And only if you pay more tax than you obtain in Benefits.

Now, that is a legal change that I could really get behind.

Sir Kneel-a-lot will not do that, of course — it would wipe out at least half of his voter base. Especially the 16 year olds.

The man really is a complete prick.