Because we’ve all been young, we know that young people are utopian. As we mature and gain hindsight, we also know that the young have shallow funds of knowledge, are easily led, and have zero life experience or investment in a stable society. Also, because they have no children of their own, even as they speak of their future, they see it only in glowing, imaginary terms. They do not care about their vulnerable children’s safety.
In other words, young people are putty in the hands of opportunistic, cynical revolutionaries. This explains why leftists in the West, for the last 60 years, have assiduously sought to lower the voting age. The last great voting age revolution was in the 1960s and 1970s, when Western nations lowered the voting age from 21 to 18.
Image by ChatGPT.
Now, in the UK, the Labour government has managed to drop the voting age to 16. And while it was at it, it also managed to do away with standardized voter ID, effectively ensuring that, not only will children vote, but so will illegal aliens and nonresidents from across the Third World.
The BBC, with an appropriate illustration of a young Muslim woman at a polling station, explains the process in an article entitled, “How will votes at 16 and changes to voter ID work?”
The voting age will be lowered to 16 across the UK before the next general election, the government has said.
The move is part of wider changes to election rules, which also include expanding the range of voter ID and moving towards automatic voter registration.
The changes mean around 1.5 million 16 and 17-year-olds will be able to vote in the next general election, which must be held by 2029 but could be earlier.
[snip]
It means 16-year-olds will be able to vote in all elections across the UK. As is the case in Scotland, young people will also be able to register to vote from age 14.
In addition to giving the vote to children, the new government is ensuring that just about anything will serve as voter ID, most of which doesn’t seem to have any indicia of citizenship attached:
In future, voters will be able to prove their ID with a UK-issued bank card showing their name, the govenment [sic] says.
Since May 2023, voters in England, Scotland and Wales have to show valid photo ID to vote in person in all general, local and national elections.
There are currently more than 20 acceptable forms of ID, including passports, driving licences, bus passes and Armed Forces Veteran Cards.
Anyone without valid ID can apply for a free document called a voter authority certificate.
I am reminded of Turkish President Recep Erdoğan’s statement about democracy, as seen from the totalitarian viewpoint: “Democracy is like a train: when we reach our destination, we get off.”
The British Labour Party, like all leftist movements, is inherently totalitarian. Having achieved control over the government, it is slowly gutting the institutions. They’ll still have the same labels, but they will not function in the same way. Soon, thanks to automatic voter registration (which is also in the works), the UK will be like the former Soviet Union.
Back then, as the Soviets liked to boast, they had almost 100% voter participation in elections. Therefore, they said that theirs was a better democracy than America’s, because the “demos” was participating more fully. Of course, what they left out was the fact that the ballot choices were “A” or “A,” and that not voting was a criminal offense.