There's an old saying that if you're not a communist at the age of 20, you haven't got a heart. And that if you're still a communist at the age of 30, you haven't got a brain.

I was pondering this when I read about the proposals in the UK to lower the voting age to 16. In general, thinking back to my youth, I'm in favour of raising the age requirements for most things, even though it might shift the popular vote in a direction I wouldn't encourage! Student politics, while an entertaining way for the young to let off steam and learn about public speaking, are hardly the basis for running a civilised democracy. No, I thought; most people shouldn't be allowed to vote until after they have a degree certificate (or an equivalent number of years of real-world experience).

And then I remembered there are also proposals to block social media for under-16s. And that gave me pause for thought.

Because maybe 16 year-olds will soon be the only people capable of sane independent decision-making! So perhaps lowering the voting age wouldn't be so bad after all, as long as it didn't come into force until about six years after the social media ban...