Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/01/hello-fellow-teens.html
…
7 Likes
Good.
12 Likes
Is Johnson’s government just going to stand by while people under 25 register to vote? Is this even legal?
/s
13 Likes
That phrase is being said quite a lot about him right now.
11 Likes
I hope this makes a difference, but am not confident that Labour will win or that, if it does, that Corbyn will do the right thing in terms of Brexit on behalf of young voters who are looking toward a more equitable future for themselves in the EU instead of toward the more equitable past outside the EU that the old Eurosceptic envisions.
10 Likes
IF they win AND there’s a referendum then there could be a positive outcome.
Otherwise it will be shitshows all the way down.
11 Likes
With all due respect Cory, it’s evident that you’re now based outside the UK and blind to the realities of life here.
Corbyn is an apologist for terror organisations, has cynically turned a blind eye to outrageous antisemitism, and has shown zero leadership on the issues facing the UK - for instance playing no role at all in the referendum, and no constructive role in trying to get us out of the mess he created. He’s no knight in shining armour and this characterisation of him is beneath you and beneath the standards of this place.
That the only way to clean up this omnishambles is a second referendum has been clearly evident since 2016. That Corbyn grudgingly said he explicitly supports one only in the last month shows how out of touch he is.
If a second referendum results in Leave again, though, I’m done with that debate and moving on to one about supporting Scottish independence (with fast-tracked EU membership) and making sure that people who’ll be hurt by Brexit can secure Scottish residency in time.
9 Likes
That’s certainly the story the Murdoch press insists upon
15 Likes
That, or playing a VERY long game…
The truth is probably nearer the middle though. Principled but slightly out of date politician dealing with amoral bastards.
8 Likes
Isn’t there a similar spike in voter registration among young people before every election? For many it will be their first time voting, so you would expect a disproportionately large number of people to register in that demographic. It would be interesting to see similar charts for the times surrounding other general election announcements.
Edit: The current spike is way smaller than the spike ahead of the last two general elections, or ahead of Brexit. That’s not to say it can’t have an impact, or that it won’t shoot up in the coming weeks, but for now this spike is completely expected.
Not saying that Labour has zero chance of turning the tide here, but Corbyn is a deeply unpopular leader and that is not going to help the Labour Party in a general election. It’s also not clear that the youth vote will break for Labour, as opposed to the Lib-Dems or smaller left parties.
4 Likes
He’s principled, no doubt – certainly more so than the New Labour neoliberal-lite warhawk sell-outs. But I just don’t know if the UK can afford his being out-of-date, especially since the date on his carton is 1972 instead of 2016.
4 Likes
The choice is almost literally “your favourite old Geography teacher” up against “the spoiled wanker.” It might not be amazing, but we might not all die at the hands of Hedge Fundies.
8 Likes
Oh, I know which one I’d vote for if I were in the UK. However, my main preferred outcome is that Brexit is put aside by referendum, and I don’t know if the old geography teacher’s doddering nostalgia for a go-it-alone socialist Britain will get you there. And if he can’t, the Hedge Fundies and spoiled wankers will win anyhow.
5 Likes
Hoping that we can accomplish something similar in the US in 2020. The disturbing rise of the Evangelical Taliban and the police backed Proud Boy Brownshirts needs to be stopped.
6 Likes
It really sucks that the default, and unfortunately most likely, position is this.
6 Likes
Everything you have said applies to de Pfeffel too, and we are going to get either the Tories or Labour in government. Those are the realities of life in Britain today. Labour are the lesser of two evils.
4 Likes
And many younger voters irrespective of any zeal or sophistication re voting may take a few elections to realise that voting Green or LibDem (except in a few lucky places) will be a waste of a vote. In fact there are probably fewer than half the seats in the country (no research done on that point, but you know what I mean) where even tactical voting will make a difference, given the number of safe seats there are, even in Brexit-time when little can be predicted safely.
It is clear why many younger people don’t even bother to register if they live somewhere where a monkey on a stick with a blue rosette would get elected even if they did the equivalent of shooting someone on 5th Avenue.
Carefully considered tactical voting is the only way now and forever unless/until we get PR and multi-member constituencies. Which will be never as long as Labour or Tories are the two who always come out ahead.
My entire life since I came of voting age (Thatcher’s first win) has been blighted by neo-liberal governments. Whilst Blair and Brown did a lot of good stuff, they still stayed lax on financial regulation, which helped lead to 2008, failed to do enough to help the parts of the UK outside London/the South-East, did little to balance services growth with manufacturing or tech, and did nothing like enough to help genuine working class people but rather focused on the metropolitan trendy lefties while vast swathes of the country withered and despaired… and of course they went to war with Iraq.
Frankly, at this point I think I’d prefer a good old-fashioned civil war/revolution to another fucking first-past-the-fucking-post general election - even if Corbyn did get a majority.
(Yeah - the next 6 weeks is going to see me in almost permanent rant mode. Apologies in advance.)
6 Likes
I have no skin in the Brexit game (USAian here) but have been doing my best to follow along. I think one big problem with Labour is that Corbyn just comes off a jerk. He might be on the proper side of most issues, but he seems so unpleasant that I think he repels everyone. If Labour had a good leader, they should be able to stomp the Conservatives. Perhaps Farage’s broadside on intelligence today will split the Brexit vote and save Labour?
@anothernewbbaccount - “monkey on a stick” I’m not sure why you hate monkeys on sticks. I feel they invariably behave better than most of your other big name politicians. A monkey on a stick would be better than what we have in the USA, as well. And it sounds safer than Giant Meteorite, or Cthulu. Perhaps I should make a Monkey-on-a-Stick bumper sticker…
2 Likes
