Extending the Franchise

Andrew Stuttaford, at NRO:

One aspect of the platform on which Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, originally came to power was the supposed intention to 'restore' British democracy. They proceeded to pursue this by, among other devices: (1) packing parliament's already retrograde upper house with cronies, (2) continually restricting the ambit of 'permissible' speech, and (3) transferring so much of what was left of parliament's sovereignty to Brussels that it has, for all practical purposes, been reduced to the level of a provincial assembly. Under the circumstances, reckoned many Brits, why bother to vote? So they didn't.

Authoritarian governments, however, like high turn-outs on polling day. That led by Blair, and now Brown, is no exception, and it may now have come up with a cunning plan to end this embarrassing lack of audience interest in their show: draft the children! The party's deputy leader is arguing that there's a strong case for extending the franchise to sixteen and seventeen-year olds. It would, apparently, teach the voting habit. We could debate the wisdom of such a move (for about a nanosecond), but it's more fun to merely marvel at its cynicism. Younger folk are, of course, far more likely to vote Labour. The better alternatives, restoring substance to debate and power to parliament, are, naturally, unacceptable.