To think there should be a minimum intelligence cut-off for being allowed to vote?

[FireCanal]

Woman on train has just told her companion that "in my district, the person who gets the most votes will be the local MP, not just the government". She genuinely appears to think there is something unusual about this
She followed it up with "do you think there is a polling station in Liverpool?"

OP, I get that you're being light-hearted, but you literally ARE 'actually suggesting people be banned from voting' by saying there should be a minimum intelligence cut-off for being allowed to vote

StellaAlpina

if you want to trade inspirational quotes ...

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

Wow, I love that quote, Lurking, so true!

You'll be agreeing with op tomorrow if UKIP do well!

Light hearted or not, limiting voting in any way is a really slippery slope - look at what's happening in the US at the moment with their "solution" to non existent voter fraud and requiring forms of ID that a lot of non-white people don't have.

FWIW there are loads of people who vote for stupid reasons. What's worse? Someone who votes for a party because of unquestioned tribal loyalty or someone who votes for a party because they have the best looking leader.

I like to quote that without citing it, since it's a very surprising source ... President Eisenhower (i.e. Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe in 1945)

'Do you have to be a member of a group to represent its interests'

Yes, usually. Or directly linked to it in some way that impacts on your own life. Altruism is as rare as, well, an honest politician.

How fast we forget.

Many people have fought long and hard to ensure that people have the vote.

The idea you limit voting based on intelligence is harking back to the time when only the elite (read richest/most educated/landed) had the vote.

I'm not saying no one would Strange but most parties look at the demographics of who has voted e.g. most pensioners vote so they usually have policies that appeal to them and don't cut pensions, free bus pass etc. Less young people vote so its easier to get things through like tuition fees, for example.
Who is to say how intelligence is measured anyway? Are we excluding dementia patients, the mentally handicapped, people with no GCSEs, poor English or what? A very dangerous idea. The elite are already going to be running this country no matter what, we could do with some more diversity.

Gosh that's a depressing one lurkinghusband, I think I need to go eat some medicinal chocolate.

And 1.5 million people have a learning disability, about 800k with dementia (I'm not saying these groups are low intelligence by the way, but many see it as so) we aren't talking small numbers.

Very nice quotes LurkingHusband and Stella.

I think this highlights very well the limitations of democraty. How can yoou follow democraty when people aren't even aware how voting works, let alone which of policies will have sort of effect on the economy, your life etc...

I think the way the run up to the elections has gone is also symptomatic. It was all about fear and 'If you vote for XXX then you will loose xxx' type of comment. Little of real explainations as to why one set of policy is better.
It was very much 'let's tell the population what they want to hear and what will bring me the most votes then I will do what I want to do as I haven't really talked abut it anyway'

Sooo on peper, if you have people deciding which way to take the country for the next 5 years but these people are mostly clueless (whatever the reason), then how is democraty suppose to be good for the country and the people living in it?

Her vote is as valid as yours OP.

Is she a young woman? This may well be her first time voting. I dare say I wouldn't have known much about what to do/where to go/what happens had my dad not gone to the polling station with me & explained the process. It isn't (or wasn't) taught in schools.

I voted for the first time today. I've only been eligible once before and didn't feel I knew enough about the system to make an informed vote.

I think politics needs to be a mandatory subject in school for at least a year. And I think at the point of registering to vote, there should be 5 or so questions checking the voter at least knows how the system works. If they get any questions wrong, they should still be registered but be sent a one pager about the system. And I think every registered voter should be sent condensed manifestos to help them decide on which party to vote for.

Yes, educating people about the political system at school might work better!

There should be a minimum requirement but common sense rather than IQ. BIL gas learning disabilities and is quite capable of making an informed decision re voting.

Recent conversation on social media: "whats the difference between the Tories and the Conservatives? I think I'm going to vote for the Conservatives coz everyone hates the Tories" - ha ha

Wow, what's up everyone's ass today? It was clearly a joke, calm down people

And I've had to block some old school friends because of conversations like this recently.

There's lots of things they could teach at school to make for a better society.

1. how our political system works
2. how our justice system works
3. how our tax and benefits system works

But a well educated population is much less easy to control, so probably not worth the effort.

I'd like there to be a minimum intelligence test for the candidates first.

^^^
This!!

Agree Lurking.

We have PSHE and Citizenship timetabled in by law. It, as it stands, is a waste of fucking time. This is real citizenship.

It's the sort of thing that should be covered in school, along with other life essentials, such as banking, bills, debating, and running a house. Perhaps if we engaged children at a younger age, they'd be more aware.

Although, I have to say, having heard the debates and campaigning that has happened in DD2's school, their generation appears to be considerably more clued up than mine was at their age.

Poor schools. Have to do everything.

I rather liked PPs idea of sending out something with the polling card. A 'How democracy in the UK works' kind of thing.