The Fixed-term Parliaments Act could be overridden by a one clause Bill, you say? But it would not be a one clause Bill, would it? Amendments have already been as good as proposed, including one to lower the voting age to 16, and another to give EU citizens the vote.
Lowering the voting age would be contrary to the international, and specifically the European, norm on which its proponents usually insist. But it would be very much in keeping with the present age's return to the nineteenth century, when bourgeois society sentimentalised small children to a ridiculous extent, but when everyone treated adolescents as miniature adults.
And giving EU citizens the vote is a bad idea in itself, but the present "British, Irish or Commonwealth" rule enfranchises Pakistanis and Bangladeshis while denying suffrage to Americans or Israelis. Is that what the Right wants? Moreover, it means that you could have been living and voting here for decades, that in principle you might even be an MP, but you could lose it all if your country left the Commonwealth or was expelled from it.
Let everyone vote, but insist that MPs be British citizens in Great Britain, and British or Irish citizens in Northern Ireland. I am open to correction, but I cannot imagine that any sitting MP is not in that position. There could not be a more beautifully wrapped gift to the local opposition than a parliamentary candidate who was not a British citizen in Great Britain, or who was not a British or Irish citizen in Northern Ireland.
Another hung Parliament is coming, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party is now in the process of registration. After nearly 30 years of suggestion, speculation, and even a sort of preparation, I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham. The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
Lowering the voting age would be contrary to the international, and specifically the European, norm on which its proponents usually insist. But it would be very much in keeping with the present age's return to the nineteenth century, when bourgeois society sentimentalised small children to a ridiculous extent, but when everyone treated adolescents as miniature adults.
And giving EU citizens the vote is a bad idea in itself, but the present "British, Irish or Commonwealth" rule enfranchises Pakistanis and Bangladeshis while denying suffrage to Americans or Israelis. Is that what the Right wants? Moreover, it means that you could have been living and voting here for decades, that in principle you might even be an MP, but you could lose it all if your country left the Commonwealth or was expelled from it.
Let everyone vote, but insist that MPs be British citizens in Great Britain, and British or Irish citizens in Northern Ireland. I am open to correction, but I cannot imagine that any sitting MP is not in that position. There could not be a more beautifully wrapped gift to the local opposition than a parliamentary candidate who was not a British citizen in Great Britain, or who was not a British or Irish citizen in Northern Ireland.
Another hung Parliament is coming, and we need our people to hold the balance of power in it. A new party is now in the process of registration. After nearly 30 years of suggestion, speculation, and even a sort of preparation, I will stand for Parliament here at North West Durham. The crowdfunding page is here, and buy the book here. Please email davidaslindsay@hotmail.com. Very many thanks.
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