On 18/01/2021 16:21, Roger Mills wrote:
On 18/01/2021 13:43, T i m wrote:
On Sun, 17 Jan 2021 23:16:38 +0000, Roger Mills
wrote:

On 17/01/2021 20:49, Chris Green wrote:
Roger Mills wrote:
On 17/01/2021 07:45, David P wrote:
Neuroscientists now claim that the human brain is not
fully developed until age 25-30.Â* We should therefore
raise the voting age to that level.Â* Military service is
different: obedience is valued over thoughtfulness.
With elections, the reverse, thoughtfulness rather than
obedience, should yield better outcomes.


How about a test of competence to vote rather thanÂ* universal
suffrage?
Some people may pass it at age 10 - others never.

How do you test?


The test would need to determine whether the person had a basic
understanding of the issues on which political parties usually campaign.

Quite. We are forcing 'foreigners' to understand (and live by?) 'our
way' via the Life in the UK' test to gain British Citizenship so why
not to be allowed to vote?

so why not
It will obviously never happen, but would be good if it could be made to
work -

You could do a pretty basic one at the polling station, multi
question, multiple choice, a randomly selected set (adaptive testing)
and if you pass you vote. Even if you learn all the answers to the
questions (like signs and stopping distances in the Highway Code) you
may well still be 'better informed' than before.

Feck, you have to take all sorts of tests to do all sorts of things
that are far less important than choosing the fact of the entire
population!

along with needing a licence to procreate.

Â* ;-)

So the EU vote test could start:

Q1. Do you know what might change and therefore impact you if we leave
the EU?

Q2. Do you believe all the things you have been told about the EU to
be fact?

Q3. Do you believe all the promises that have been made re the
benefits of us leaving the EU to be fact?

Q4. Do you care about concepts (like Sovereignty) than facts (how
having Sovereignty may or may not make a positive difference to us)?


Q5. Do you believe that the stock market will crash as soon as a
decision is made to leave?

Stock market is booming
Only thing I am down on is shell oil - no demand / covid.


Q6. Do you believe that a decision to leave will immediately result in
Armageddon and WW3?

Hasn't yet

etc.

But all the above is EU Referendum based. For covering all elections,
you'd need something far more general - based on a general understanding
of the differences between capitalism and socialism, the relationship
between government spending and taxation, etc.


--
New Socialism consists essentially in being seen to have your heart in
the right place whilst your head is in the clouds and your hand is in
someone else's pocket.