Do you agree with our readers? Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
Are boomers the most politically involved?
The Department for Work and Pensions has announced a review into the age at which people can receive the state pension. Giving everyone over a certain age a triple-locked pension is unfair, unsustainable and economically nonsensical.
So why do we do it? Because the group of people it benefits – the baby boomers – are more politically engaged. They vote more, they do more writing to their MPs, they participate more in their local communities and they are more active in public campaigns.
By doing those things, they’ve worked themselves into a position where they hold a huge amount of sway.
If you want more from your politicians, then be like the baby boomers and get more involved in politics. Helen Shaw, Liverpool
Retirement age reduction?
I’d like to see the retirement age reduced to 60 so most of our almost two million unemployed citizens can take up the jobs left by the early retirees. Richard Farrar, London
‘More homes than buyers’, reader comments on Labour’s response to the housing crisis
I imagine I was not alone in noting Phil Spencer’s comments (Metro, Tue) that, ‘This year there are more homes on the market than buyers.’
It looks as though Labour have solved the housing crisis, then! Rob Edwards, Wirral
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Reader says that the ‘over-18 population’ are equally as ‘ignorant and uninformed’ as 16 and 17-year olds
In response to several comments I’ve seen on these pages that read along the lines of ‘16 and 17-year-olds are too ignorant/uninformed to be voting’. I think it’s more than safe to say that this assessment applies to a much higher proportion of the over-18 population than it does to our youth. I can think of far too many ‘more experienced’ people who have no interest in learning anything about politics or social issues that don’t already align with their own worldview, whereas at least young people’s minds are regularly being challenged and moulded through schooling and the many different perspectives they’re naturally exposed to as they grow up.
And for all those pointing to them being too young to buy alcohol, play the lottery and myriad other irrelevant arguments – is it really such a bad thing if people who may not yet have encountered such vices are helping to decide our collective future? Harry, Edinburgh
16-year-olds on jury duty?
In 1969, when the voting age was reduced to 18, those 18-year-olds became eligible to serve as jurors soon after.
When the voting age is reduced to 16 will they be eligible to serve on juries too? HG, Maidstone
Should schools be banning wearing the Union Jack?
Following on from a 12-year-old girl being removed from a diversity class (MetroTalk, Wed) it now turns out that more than one school has banned pupils for wearing clothes with a Union Jack on it.
What has happened to this country? Welsh, Scottish and Irish people are allowed to wear their flags with pride. But the minute you wear a Union Jack or Cross of St George in England you are seen as some form of racist right-wing thug. Gary, Essex
‘Shutting down the House of Representatives smells of desperation’, says reader
Speaker Mike Johnson’s decision to shut down possible discussion about the Epstein files by shutting down the House of Representatives smells of desperation.
Epstein died, by whatever means, almost six years ago and there is still no real action on releasing the files – despite Trump’s assurances.
The files are not going to be forgotten, and hopefully not destroyed, so let them be seen. Let the truth be told. Dennis Fitzgerald, Australia
