Sky Views: Letter to my daughter, a first-time voter

Colin Brazier, Paste BN Presenter

Dear Edith,

On 30 May you will turn 18. What a milestone. This is the moment the state takes the air-brakes off.

I don't know if you've been pining to buy cigarettes and fireworks - legally - but now you can.

You can serve on a jury, although it might be worth finishing your A-level revision first.

Oh, and you can vote.

You won't have the franchise long before you're entitled to exercise it - just a few days in fact. So, a week after you can vote, you'll be able to. If that feels too much democracy too soon, let me offer you some thoughts that might provoke some of your own.

First, do not succumb to cynicism about the political process. At least not yet. You will often hear folk trotting out tropes about there being no point in voting. Look your cynic straight in the eye and ask them for their alternative. Would they prefer a benign dictatorship or an absolute monarchy? You could do worse than quote Winston Churchill who noted, between puffs on his cigar, that "...democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried".

Second, have faith in human nature. When you were born, I was working in Westminster as a political hack. Some of the MPs I met were self-evidently self-serving. Around others hung a whiff of moral corruption. A few were downright seedy. But the majority were well-meaning, public-spirited citizens who sought to do good for their fellow man and woman.

If it really is 'none of the above' then spoil your ballot. Turn your back on candidates if you must, but don't disdain the principle.

Third, don't dismiss the wisdom of crowds. It's easy to be sniffy about populism. I've heard you turn the air blue about Trump and Brexit (is there a legal age for swearing like a trooper?). Nonetheless, consider the possibility that the masses will occasionally correct the over-reach of cabals, even if the result seems perverse at the time.

Fourth, have the courage to go against the grain. Don't take your politics as a shrink-wrapped package straight off the shelf. Just because you like a party's policy, don't feel it's obligatory to embrace their entire programme. As the eldest of six children, I know you are no snowflake. Don't be bullied into group-think.

Fifth, remember that voting is a sacred right. Two of your great-grandfathers dodged German bullets in a war to stop totalitarian dominion over our nation. Your great-grandmothers belonged to the first generation of women to get the vote. If it really is 'none of the above' then spoil your ballot. Turn your back on candidates if you must, but don't disdain the principle.

Sky Views is a series of comment pieces by Paste BN editors and correspondents, published every morning.

Previously on Sky Views: Dominic Waghorn - EU may be doomed even if Macron wins