Britain’s government: the sick and the dead

The government of Great Britain is seriously considering extending the vote to 16 year olds. The reason? According to Labor party deputy leader Harriet Harmon, “There’s a democratic imperative to increase turnout because democracy lacks legitimacy if there’s a dwindling number of people participating in it.”

So, not enough people think politics matters, and so not enough people vote, which makes the vote less legitimate—and Harmon thinks that the legitimacy of the vote will be restored by extending it to children and thus radically de-valuing it?

It doesn’t occur to Harmon that the low voter turnout may stem from the fact that Britain has changed from a self-governing constitutional monarchy into an unfree appendage of the unaccountable European Union, and that the British people know this, and know that their votes are meaningless. Do you really want to increase the vote, Miss Harmon? Very simple. Withdraw from the EU and restore British sovereignty, so that the British become a self-governing people again. Also, repeal Britain’s “anti-hate-speech” laws, which make it a criminal offense for people to debate the most vital issues facing their country, particularly Islamization and immigration.

But of course Harmon doesn’t give a damn about the vote or about political participation. In today’s EU member states, the vote is just for show. Large turnout is needed, not to increase actual democratic representation, but, as in the “elections” in the Soviet Union, to validate a system that is radically non-democratic at its core.

Clark Coleman writes:

An obvious point: Whining about voter turnout is based on PERCENTAGES, not absolute numbers. Lowering the voting age will almost certainly lower the percentage of eligible voters who register and vote.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 12, 2008 03:01 PM | Send