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Get them while they’re young

The Courier reports:

Scottish Government asks eight-year-olds to reveal their Brexit views

The Scottish Government is appealing to children as young as eight to share their views on Brexit.

Critics branded the Twitter plea for youngsters to “work with” the government on a Europe panel “creepy”.

But the SNP administration defended the move as giving those who will be most affected by leaving the EU a “voice in the Brexit negotiations”.

The call by the Twitter account ScotGovEurope said: “Are you aged 8 – 18? Children and young people in Scotland are going to be affected by #Brexit, so we want your views!

“Apply to join the @cisweb Children & Young People’s Panel on Europe to work with @scotgov.”

It sparked claims that SNP ministers are trying to indoctrinate children on the constitution.

The charity says that young people have a “right to be heard in the discussions about Brexit”, which they say is backed up by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Brexit is the single biggest threat to our economy and future prosperity, and children and young people will be most affected in the coming years.

“We are therefore supporting Children in Scotland to establish the children and young people’s panel on Europe and enable them to have a voice in the Brexit negotiations.”

Here’s where you can apply to join the Panel, but first they recommend that you ask yourself

Is the project for me?

This project might be for you if you like standing up for the things you believe in, and
talking about:
• What Brexit might mean for your family and friends
• What people in charge should be doing to help children
• What rules people in charge should follow when they make
decisions about Brexit

I think we can safely say that most Samizdata readers qualify. However this one might be more tricky:

• Why children should have their say on Brexit

The question of whether those who think that children should not have their say on Brexit could or should join the Panel is left for the reader. Oh, I nearly forgot, to be eligible you do have to be aged between eight and eighteen. Reassuringly,

You don’t need to know much about Brexit to apply. We will share information with you to
help you to take part.

17 comments to Get them while they’re young

  • Pat

    Whilst we’re at it lets have people from 8-18 advising on education, sex, marriage, alcohol, smoking, etc. etc.
    as a first step can we have school boards appointed from just such people- after all its their future that is most affected by education.

  • to be eligible you do have to be aged between eight and eighteen

    I identify as a youthful and spritely 17-year-old. I demand the Scottish government recognise that everyone is as young as they feel. Do they not know that maths (especially integer arithmetic) may be racist (and sexist, homophobic, transphobic and etc-ist), but one thing it undeniably is above all – agist!!

  • pete

    When the state creates noddy assemblies with limited powers it is inevitable that they and their new bureaucracies will occupy their time with nonsense like this.

    Time to ditch the ones in London, Wales and Scotland.

  • Sam Duncan

    Of course, they’re not really interested in their views. 8-year-olds don’t have views on the European Union. I’ve said many times, here and elsewhere, that mine weren’t fully formed until my early 20s. Indeed, until 1990-’93, around the time of the Maastricht débacle, I was the world’s most enthusiastic cheerleader for the Project. It’s absurd to say that because Brexit will affect kids “more” than adults, their say now is important. Opinions change.

    This is a propaganda excercise. And I have to wonder who’s paying for it.

    “Time to ditch the ones in London, Wales and Scotland.”

    Absolutely, pete. I’ve said before, I think, that it’s noticably more acceptable to say that in polite company over the last year or so. Not quite yet in the media, but up till now it was definitely one of those things – like libertarianism before the internet – which you just assumed nobody else agreed with. (Despite barely 40% of the electorate voting for it in the first place, back in ’97.)

  • john in cheshire

    This obsession with immature children and semi-adults by lefties is bordering on Lord of the Flies absurdity.
    It’s actually very creepy.

  • Anonymous Coward

    Fucking hell, my 8 year old son hasn’t even heard of the EU. The closest he’s got to an international policy idea is to replace all the guns with swords so that we can have cool medieval battles again. I must be doing it all wrong. I should get him down out of that tree and start teaching him about the fundamentals of global governance and international political economy right away!

  • Runcie Balspune

    “Give me the child and I’ll give you the man” – probably inaccurate but the reasoning behind it of religious indoctrination is as apt as ever.

    Indeed, until 1990-’93, around the time of the Maastricht débacle, I was the world’s most enthusiastic cheerleader for the Project.

    Same here, I envisioned a future of more local democracy and wider cooperation, how naive, before I realized that when you give people more power they are more likely to abuse it and less likely to share it.

    Logically, the older generation have experienced the “in EU” and “out EU”, they remember the time “before”, and they have gone through the slow and steady frog-boiling exercise since, they are by far the best to judge, but then, they all voted out, so no good asking them.

  • Paul Marks

    The children are NOT being encouraged to express their own opinions – for example if they expressed “racist” opinions the authorities would come down on them (and their parents) like a ton of bricks. The children are expected to repeat back the pro European Union attitudes their teachers (and so on) have taught them.

    The brainwashing of young children is a mark of the left (it has been since Plato – with his suggestion that children should be raised in common by the state) – for example in Sweden many children are taken into “Day Care” when they are basically still babies. The destruction of the family and of traditional motherhood being an aim (a central aim) of the left.

    Scotland is going down the same road.

  • Mr Ecks

    It is long past time the heavy hand was brought down on the SNP.

    A commissar for every child–though weakened I think by court cases has not gone away. Had we a decent PM such should simply order the SNP to drop all their commie crap or massive deductions will be made from the Scottish Budget.

  • Regional

    Why don’t these politicians tell these youngsters why a massive debt is being dumped on them?

  • jim jones

    The Scottish Government is the single biggest threat to our economy and future prosperity

  • AlexB

    The Nats tried putting forward amendments to the trade bill to essentially give them the power to veto any deals put forward. All slapped down, which was probably their aim. Then they can go back to the people and say “we tried to give Scotland a voice, but the Westminster oppressors said nae. Indyref now!”

    One of them even said it was government’s duty to give the softest Brexit possible because Scotland voted remain.

    So, yeah. They are indoctrinating the next generation to hate by teaching them the EU was all that was good in the world, and the English bloody wrecked it for them.

  • “Brexit is the single biggest threat to our economy and future prosperity, and children and young people will be most affected in the coming years.

    We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.

  • Nicholas (Unlicensed Joker) Gray

    Benjamin Disraeli once said that the purpose of a state schooling system was to condition youngsters by the use of tyranny. It’s all schooling, not just Brexit. (Could be the start of a new quote! Replace the common saying “It’s not cricket” with “That’s not Brexit!!!” Far more topical!)

  • Steve Borodin

    What is the Scottish for Hitler Youth?

  • Tedd

    If you live in a world where all truth is relative then the opinions of an eight year old are as valid as anyone else’s.

  • What is the Scottish for Hitler Youth? (Steve Borodin, July 20, 2018 at 11:44 am)

    Nippy’s Bairns – except that that only works till the leader changes, so I guess it would be Natz Bairns.

    I assume the Named Persons will be required to, uh, ‘talent-spot’ those it is ‘safe’ to hear from, along with their other duties.