Should pensioners get the vote?

spasypaddy

Now we know all of them are old, and therefore cantankerous; plus they are going to die soon. So my questions are:

Is their vote skewed with them being angry against the world?
Does their opinion matter if they are going to be dead soon?

Discuss

notsoblue

Couldn't stop them from getting the vote, the tories would never get in.

CiB

Pensioner = people aged 65+; life expectancy is 78.4 years for men, 82.6 years for women. Do the math man.

bails87

CiB wrote:

Pensioner = people aged 65+; life expectancy is 78.4 years for men, 82.6 years for women. Do the math man.

Assuming it's not changed again (ha!) I won't be eligible for my state pension until I'm 68....

PBo

Didn't you forget to put "Discuss" at the bottom?

spasypaddy

CiB wrote:

Pensioner = people aged 65+; life expectancy is 78.4 years for men, 82.6 years for women. Do the math man.

thats still soon in my eyes

walkingbootweather

Didn't the SNP successfully argue that 16 and 17 year olds should get a vote on Scottish Indepenance because they can join the armed forces, get a job and contribute towards taxes? If this is to be the measure then only crinklies that pay tax and are prepared to fight the Taliban should get a vote, surely?

Maybe we should move away from one man - one vote and allow people to have more votes depending upon their contribution, or maybe we should have a test and only allow those that can demonstrate an appreciation of the issues the opportunity to vote?

Yes I am joshing

SimonAH

Or didn't the SNP actually argue that 16 and 17 year olds get a vote on independance because a poll of 16 and 17 year olds indicated that this age group was proportionatley more in favour of independence?

PBo

walkingbootweather wrote:

or maybe we should have a test and only allow those that can demonstrate an appreciation of the issues the opportunity to vote?

Yes I am joshing

Why josh? This is the second law I pass in my dictatorship.

First law is the test you pass to prove you have at least fair chance of doing an ok job of bringing kids up ok, before you reproduce..

Third law is the auto destruct device fitted to all cars that instantly vapourises if you commit any c0ck like acts of driving/car ownership
Including, but not limited too:
- unnecessary speeding/ revving/ tyre squealing in built up areas (saxo drivers get vaporised on ignition as a preventative measure
- blacked out windows or those blue downlights (vaporisation to occur on fitting, not even ignition)
- anyone who fails to park in a reasonably timely manner because their 4x4 is too fuck1ng big for the conditions (I'm looking at you, mothers of Vita et Pax school children)
- left hooking
- accelerate stupidly past bike and then slam on brakes as immediately reach queue of cars/lights

SimonAH

Same law to apply to anyone wishing to dial into a radio talk show or appear in a Vox Pop segment in the news.

PBo

SimonAH wrote:

Same law to apply to anyone wishing to dial into a radio talk show or appear in a Vox Pop segment in the news.

Feck yeah!

In fact, if you ask someone if they want to give a vox pop and then they say yes, that should automatically disqualify them......

tailwindhome

Pensioners already have the right to vote.

Or do you mean should they get your vote?

DonDaddyD

Most Pensioners range from mostly prejudice - racist. It's because they didn't have things like Internet, Telephones and colour TVs. Most of society was racial in those days as well, Windrush wasn't well received. So I reckon, no.

This is of course a joke.

SteppenHerring

walkingbootweather wrote:

D... If this is to be the measure then only crinklies that pay tax and are prepared to fight the Taliban should get a vote, surely?

Given the average pensioner's stance on "fun" I don't think they'll be fighting against the Taliban.

Kieran_Burns

walkingbootweather wrote:

Didn't the SNP successfully argue that 16 and 17 year olds should get a vote on Scottish Indepenance because they can join the armed forces, get a job and contribute towards taxes? If this is to be the measure then only crinklies that pay tax and are prepared to fight the Taliban should get a vote, surely?

Maybe we should move away from one man - one vote and allow people to have more votes depending upon their contribution, or maybe we should have a test and only allow those that can demonstrate an appreciation of the issues the opportunity to vote?

Yes I am joshing

If I was in power I would strictly enforce the "one man - one vote" system

I am the man and I have the vote.

Oh and I would also use a rubber duck that quacks on impact to beat to death anyone who uses the term "do the math"

This is to ensure their removal from civilised society while terminally embarrassing them.

TheStone

PBo wrote:

In fact, if you ask someone if they want to give a vox pop and then they say yes, that should automatically disqualify them......

I'd like a similar rule for MPs

CiB

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Oh and I would also use a rubber duck that quacks on impact to beat to death anyone who uses the term "do the math"
This is to ensure their removal from civilised society while terminally embarrassing them.

Quite right too. What a ridiculous sentence to use in polite company.

rjsterry

PBo wrote:

walkingbootweather wrote:

or maybe we should have a test and only allow those that can demonstrate an appreciation of the issues the opportunity to vote?

Yes I am joshing

Why josh? This is the second law I pass in my dictatorship.

First law is the test you pass to prove you have at least fair chance of doing an ok job of bringing kids up ok, before you reproduce..

Third law is the auto destruct device fitted to all cars that instantly vapourises if you commit any c0ck like acts of driving/car ownership
Including, but not limited too:
- unnecessary speeding/ revving/ tyre squealing in built up areas (saxo drivers get vaporised on ignition as a preventative measure
- blacked out windows or those blue downlights (vaporisation to occur on fitting, not even ignition)
- anyone who fails to park in a reasonably timely manner because their 4x4 is too fuck1ng big for the conditions (I'm looking at you, mothers of Vita et Pax school children)
- left hooking
- accelerate stupidly past bike and then slam on brakes as immediately reach queue of cars/lights

Excellent suggestion, although the fumes from vapourised vehicles might get a bit choking on some stretches of road.

CiB

Seriously, pensioners should vote as my old boy's vote cancels my balmy OH's vote up the wrong tree for the barking mad party, leaving mine as the vote of value in our house. Old Mother CIB's vote just adds to the party. Land-owning previous generation closet DM readers and part-time racists for all I know do have their uses.

Equally I'd hope that pensioners do have the vote when I get there. Try everything once except folk dancing & incest, goes the saying, but I'd like one day to feel what it's like to vote Labour, just for the frisson of excitement of knowing that it won't matter by then. If I get past the ton it might be a giggle to vote BNP and see who dare badmouth a cantankerous old cretin who lost his marbles & his knees years previously. DDD probably.

TheStone

It's kind of wrong that children don't have the vote.

We're borrowing and promising ridiculous amounts on money on their account, to keep our generations in the comfort we don't deserve. They'll have nothing other than debts and liabilities (pensions) to pay. Plus whatever other nonsense we've talked them into getting into debt for (education, housing...) with all the money going to the older generations.

jedster

I genuinely quite like the idea that your vote should be weighted by your remaining life expectancy.
E.g., 20 yr old gets say 65 points, 80 yr old gets 5 points
Logic is to address the issue that old people have an incnentive to be very short-termist (keeping giving me that free bus pass I dont need and let the younger generations pay of the debt when I'm dead)
I'm not saying I'd vote for that but it has a ceratin merit...

Green Brompton

I had a GE voting card come through for me when I was 17... so I did

rjsterry

TheStone wrote:

It's kind of wrong that children don't have the vote.

We're borrowing and promising ridiculous amounts on money on their account, to keep our generations in the comfort we don't deserve. They'll have nothing other than debts and liabilities (pensions) to pay. Plus whatever other nonsense we've talked them into getting into debt for (education, housing...) with all the money going to the older generations.

Who'll then have to pay it back out to fund their care in their last years or leave it in trust for their children to avoid the inheritance tax. Not sure this is really any different from the way it always has been.

NickintheLakes

spasypaddy wrote:

Now we know all of them are old, and therefore cantankerous; plus they are going to die soon. So my questions are:

Is their vote skewed with them being angry against the world?
Does their opinion matter if they are going to be dead soon?

Discuss

You might be dead soon - who knows. Ergo your stupid bigoted opinion doesn't matter by your own logic.

confused@BR

Thanks for the thought but I already have the vote. Moreover lots of us Pensioners vote lots. It makes us an important demographic for politicians which is why, although they talk about removing Bus Passes and Winter Fuel Allowances, etc., they don't. Universal Franchise was hard-won by generations before, those with long memories cherish it and use it to advantage.

Daz555

TheStone wrote:

It's kind of wrong that children don't have the vote.

No it isn't. Children are stupid.

Besides we shouldn't be troubling them with the depressing realities of politics any sooner than we have to!

jedster

It makes us an important demographic for politicians which is why, although they talk about removing Bus Passes and Winter Fuel Allowances, etc., they don't.

Yeah, hence my post above. As the nation "greys" it will be more and more likely that pensioners will be able to keepelecting voting for parties who put a higher and higher burden on the fewer and fewer working age people who actually have to pay for the pensions and benefits (given these are largely unfunded).

It'll get sticky.

confused@BR

Oddly enough,I don't have a Bus Pass, I have a Hybrid instead, paid for by a Winter Fuel Allowance of a few years ago. Plenty of people don't take up their entitlement, or donate W F A and similar to Charity. My W F A buys me a couple of cases of wine each year

If old people have anything in common (doubtful) it is a long memory, it makes us less impressed with bright shiny politicians with bright shiny promises like 'we are all in this together'. We also know that policies that foster selfishness and greed benefit the few at the expense of the many. The N H S costs less than any commercial model national health system in the world. That British Railways was cheaper, with faster journey times and central ticketing than the present chaotic model. That selling socially owned houses to people who cannot afford them and building no more makes property speculators rich.

If there was a political party that adopted that reality into their manifest even more pensioners would vote. Of course it will never happen

magibob

Just a thought, but, as politics is basically about how taxes are spent, shouldn't it be a rule that people who have never paid tax shouldn't have a say in how it's spent?

An no, I'm not a pensioner.

I am with Bill Bryson who sometimes imagines he has an invisible ray gun, and walks through crows saying "Culling Culling" as he takes out parts of society he doesn't like.

Cheers

Andy