The Scottish Government is currently gathering feedback on a range of proposed electoral reforms – including one which would allow 16 and 17 year olds to become MSPs.
It’s a dreadful idea.
It might sound progressive when you first hear it but the potential risks soon become clear the longer you think about it.
It would be a safeguarding nightmare, for starters.
The young guinea pig who became our first 16 year old MSP would be subject to a media (and social media) frenzy.
The fact that 16 year olds can get married and join the army is not a valid argument for allowing them to become MSPs. It’s an argument for changing those daft laws too.
Anyway, I only mention this because shortly before FMQs got started, I read a quote from SNP MSP George Adam, saying that 16 and 17 year old MSPs would "change the vibrancy’’ of Holyrood.
By the time the weekly question and answer session was over, it was clear that we don’t need teenage MSPs to make Holyrood more vibrant.
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A ball with a face drawn on it would have a similar effect.
You could replace some backbenchers with a bag of limp carrots and the standard of debate would improve tenfold.
Anas Sarwar began by asserting that the Scottish Government has been ‘’short-changing’’ local councils for the past fifteen years.
In response, Nicola Sturgeon said we are living in times of "real financial difficulty and restraint’’ (ain’t that the truth) but in the upcoming budget, her government is proposing "an increase in resources available to local government of over £570m – that’s a real terms increase of £160m.’’
Look, I’ll be honest with you: whenever politicians trade numbers, my eyes start to glaze over a wee bit.
I have no idea what £570m looks like in practice. It sounds like a lot of money but then again, it must cost roughly that just to whack the heating on for a few hours in those draughty old council buildings.
Anas Sarwar paints the Scottish Government as a miserly scrooge, withholding funds from local government. Nicola Sturgeon wants to give the impression that her government is a rotund Santa Claus, throwing millions of pounds and 1kg tubs of Lurpak towards grateful councils across Scotland.
The First Minister finished her answer by offering to listen to any budget ideas that Anas Sarwar had.
She said that if he could tell her where he would take cash from elsewhere in the budget to give to local councils, she’d be interested to hear it.
"Should it be from the National Health Service? Should it be from the police? Should it be from the central government education budget?’’ she asked.
The Scottish Labour leader hit back: "What the Scottish Government wants to ignore is all the waste this government is doing: the vanity projects; the money hidden down the sofa for the deal with the Greens!
"She knows that she has taken the decisions that have slashed council budgets because for fifteen years the SNP have underfunded councils.’’
The First Minister replied: "The problem for Anas Sarwar is it the verdict of the Scottish people that matters, which is why I’m standing here…and he is sitting over there’."
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