The world will never be short of idiots.
EG the "I'm a Labour/Conservative/Liberal/MRL man, and I always have been. I'll always vote for them!"
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 12:43, 1 reply)

Unfortunately true.
Sometimes several stupidities co-exist within a single person, like the elderly US voter interviewed by the BBC in the run-up to the Presidential elections that saw Barack Obama take office: "I have been a Democratic voter all my life, but I will not vote for a negro."
( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 12:48, closed)

And yet - AND YET - when I suggest we remove the vote as an automatic right, to be replaced with a system in which you earn it by passing an independent test on current affairs each election year ...
People get all uppity.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 12:50, closed)

I think guaranteeing the independence and transparency of the test would be the hard part there.

( .Yeti. El amor en los tiempos del cólera, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 13:10, closed)

Yes it would.
But that's not my concern - I'm an ideas man, not a factory foreman.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 13:21, closed)

I like the idea.
Handing control to an intellectual elite would preclude your participation.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 13:30, closed)

Oh ZING!

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 15:58, closed)

So what?
Democracy can fuck off then?
(immadme, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 18:18, closed)

make it a paid privilege rather than a right
make it most expensive to those who can least afford it, and those who are likely to abuse it

bollocks, I didn't read the thread above so this makes no sense in context

never mind
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 21:12, closed)

One of Nevil Shute's novels - I think it was In The Wet, posited an interesting future Britain in which people have multiple votes allocated to them, up to 7, depending on...

One by default, everyone has this
One for completing a degree, a professional qualification, or being appointed an officer in the military
One for foreign travel

then some slightly more dubious ones

One for achieving a high personal income over a certain level
One for family values - raising 2 children without divorcing

then it starts getting really surreal

One for being an official of the church
One that can only be awarded by the reigning monarch, for merit
(Carpe Cyprinidae, Wed 18 Dec 2013, 21:25, closed)

That sounds excellent.
Other than the church bit.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 19 Dec 2013, 9:59, closed)