No, AV was rejected, there’s a sharp difference.

You might not want the situation found in most developed countries, where people get MP’s suited to their ideology, but I do.

And Italy’s problems are based on using a nationwide pure party list system for their House, which are *highly* unpopular for agood reasons (Israel is another example of why that’s a terrible voting system) and not in contention. So please, irrelevant.

No, let’s use MMP.

Fptp is the system we have, the referendum rejected a change. Any other system rather than providing a Government 30-40% want produces one no one wants and we could end up like Italy with almost a new Government every year, and their system was supposed to deliver stability by keeping the Communist Party out of power!

Then you’ve undermined the legitimacy of the referendum by having special criteria on who can vote. And why shouldn’t non-UK nationals vote if they work here, for instance?

16-17 year olds are not mature, not adults under the law. You pay tax when you earn money, not at all the same thing – a newborn baby can “pay tax” if a trust fund’s income is high enough.

And in fact, Britain is under a lot of fire for allowing 17 year olds to serve on the front line as soldiers, and 16-17 year olds require parental consent.

It’s also basically a joke for general voting, since we have FPTP and little will change. No, voting system reform is important, voting *age* is a distraction.

I strongly disagree on this. If there is to be an in-out referendum it is 16-17 year olds who are going to have to live with the repercussions of either decision for the longest and therefore they should absolutely be allowed to have a say.

I personally think that 16-17 year olds should be able to vote in all elections. If you are old enough to pay direct taxes you should have a say in how those taxes get spent ie a vote. If you do not think 16-17 year olds mature enough then they shouldn’t be paying direct taxes (no taxation without representation), they should not be able to marry, they should not be able to join the army and be sent off somewhere to die for a country which denies them any say in how it is run.

Completely disagree. Referendums should use exactly the same voting criteria as Westminster elections, for the simple reason of democratic credibility. For that matter, we shouldn’t have referendums – both Atlee and Thatcher opposed them, and remaining within the bounds of their views to the left and right is reasonable.

People are not disengaged from politics because they can’t vote younger, people are disengaged from politics because we have FPTP, a system which leads to a vast gulf between what people vote for and the government they get. Voting system reform is the answer, not granting the vote to younger people.

(I’m simply rolling my eyes at the propaganda accusations, and I note Mr. Farrage is not slow to take EU cash)