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| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Fallout from the Scottish referendum | Fallout from the Scottish referendum |
| (8 days later) | |
| One of the strongest arguments for giving the vote to 16-year-olds, as proposed in Scotland (Editorial, 22 October), is that it is an essential step towards tackling voter under-registration. The Electoral Commission has reported that at least 6 million people are missing from electoral registers. Yet now we see that the under-registration figure is likely to be larger than this, as census details have just been revealed which show that 1.57 million people in England and Wales have second addresses and this will entitle many of them to double registration. If, say, 1 million throughout the UK have done this, that means that under-registration is then over the 7 million mark.With votes at 16, the names of "attainers" would be included on registers when they were 15, showing the dates of their coming birthdays and their then entitlement to vote. If registration for these first-time voters took place via their schools, an initial registration of almost 100% could be achieved. A proactive registration system could then be put in place to ensure that most of those who initially registered did not later in life slip through the net. | One of the strongest arguments for giving the vote to 16-year-olds, as proposed in Scotland (Editorial, 22 October), is that it is an essential step towards tackling voter under-registration. The Electoral Commission has reported that at least 6 million people are missing from electoral registers. Yet now we see that the under-registration figure is likely to be larger than this, as census details have just been revealed which show that 1.57 million people in England and Wales have second addresses and this will entitle many of them to double registration. If, say, 1 million throughout the UK have done this, that means that under-registration is then over the 7 million mark.With votes at 16, the names of "attainers" would be included on registers when they were 15, showing the dates of their coming birthdays and their then entitlement to vote. If registration for these first-time voters took place via their schools, an initial registration of almost 100% could be achieved. A proactive registration system could then be put in place to ensure that most of those who initially registered did not later in life slip through the net. |
| As under-registration is high among the 18-25 age group, the poor, the rootless and ethnic minorities, this leads to a situation where the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies are seriously distorted. A system of initial registration via schools, with an associated and imaginative educational programme, could start to correct this imbalance and develop a commitment among young people to use and improve the democratic process. Or are we going to leave it all to Alex Salmond? Harry Barnes Dronfield, Derbyshire | As under-registration is high among the 18-25 age group, the poor, the rootless and ethnic minorities, this leads to a situation where the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies are seriously distorted. A system of initial registration via schools, with an associated and imaginative educational programme, could start to correct this imbalance and develop a commitment among young people to use and improve the democratic process. Or are we going to leave it all to Alex Salmond? Harry Barnes Dronfield, Derbyshire |
| • It may well be that nuclear weapons are the biggest headache for the SNP, but there are others. For example, would an independent Scotland observe fealty to an English monarch? To its banks, now mostly owned by the London government? Would it retain sterling? A commercial-free BBC? Even if the referendum were a victory for Scottish independence, to what extent would a Scotland which was forced under Nato rules to station British nuclear weapons on its soil, which retained British banks, sterling, the Queen and a version of the BBC, be really independent of the rest of Britain? I'm a Scot and proud to be Scottish. And many people – not just in Scotland – are encouraged by the way that the SNP is opposed to the sociopathic Westminster policies on education, welfare, health, nuclear energy, and the massive fiscal cuts. But the SNP doesn't need a formally independent Scotland to continue to do that. Ian Fairlie London | • It may well be that nuclear weapons are the biggest headache for the SNP, but there are others. For example, would an independent Scotland observe fealty to an English monarch? To its banks, now mostly owned by the London government? Would it retain sterling? A commercial-free BBC? Even if the referendum were a victory for Scottish independence, to what extent would a Scotland which was forced under Nato rules to station British nuclear weapons on its soil, which retained British banks, sterling, the Queen and a version of the BBC, be really independent of the rest of Britain? I'm a Scot and proud to be Scottish. And many people – not just in Scotland – are encouraged by the way that the SNP is opposed to the sociopathic Westminster policies on education, welfare, health, nuclear energy, and the massive fiscal cuts. But the SNP doesn't need a formally independent Scotland to continue to do that. Ian Fairlie London |
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