Would you want a 16-year-old as your MSP in the Scottish Parliament?
SNP minister George Adam thinks it would add “vibrancy” to Holyrood.
There’s certainly been plenty of activity this past week as elected representatives dashed for hiding places after their proposed gender legislation crashed headlong into the juggernaut of public opinion.
But the 16-year-olds suggestion is yet another example of the intellectual vacuum at the heart of a parliament which is increasingly short on logic and long on daft ideas.
On the one hand, our lawmakers want to tailor punishment for criminal offences because the brain supposedly doesn’t fully develop until the age of 25.
And on the other they’re suggesting folk nine years younger than that could be debating and making complex laws.
I think the best way to answer the question of 16-year-old MSPs is to cast your own mind back to what you were like at that age.
My head was occupied with football, music, getting up at 5 am for my morning milk round, and still being on time for school.
I’m pretty certain that running the country wasn’t uppermost in my thoughts.
Maturation matters – for whisky and 16-year-old MSPs
That’s not to say some youngsters with prodigiously sharp intellects couldn’t do it.
In fact if they were that clever the biggest problem for a 16-year-old MSP at Holyrood might be the lack of stimulating company.
I don’t see any 16-year-old doctors, police officers, or teachers though.
We’ve long accepted in trades and professions that folk need to serve a lengthy apprenticeship or training period.
And I’m not convinced that someone just about to study for their Highers or being sent for a left handed screwdriver as an apprentice joiner is ready to be making laws which have a huge impact on society.
Unlike some people I don’t think there’s an unbridgeable generation divide in modern society.
But I do think that, as is the case with producing fine whisky or cheese, rushing the maturation process is liable to result in failure.
Youth and adolescence have always jousted with each other, with younger folk thinking their elders know little of value and those of more mature years returning the compliment.
American author Mark Twain nailed it, writing:
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Strong arguments on both sides, but voters want wisdom from their MSPs
It’s too easy for what are often called baby boomers to label all of the younger generation as soft and mollycoddled.
It’s equally simplistic to suggest that older generations are all selfish and set in their ways.
Naturally there’s a modicum of truth in the arguments of both sides.
Some strong/hostile opposition to Scot Gov consulting on lowering candidacy age for MSPs & councillors to 16. Here's another take: rigid age limits for accessing political rights (to vote or stand) are just artificial administrative devices to screen out those presumed 'immature'
— Heather Green (@VotingRules) February 7, 2023
Older folk have been around the block a few times and learned a few tricks and seen a few things.
Younger ones are naturally full of the spirit of inquiry and certainty.
And while it’s wrong to claim that there’s nothing new under the sun, as many mature individuals like to do in trying to pull rank on their more inexperienced kin, likewise not everything labelled progressive by youth is a step in the direction of human advancement.
If you’re 16, you have plenty of time on your side and, in a modern world of communications, no shortage of outlets to express your views.
But in my humble opinion you still have a fair journey to travel before you’ve earned the right to become an MSP on £66,000 a year, laying down the law to folk who’ve spent a lifetime grafting and learning from their mistakes.
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