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I might be changing my mind. Then again I might not. I haven’t quite decided yet.

I’ve always thought 16 year olds should vote in national elections . This was not just because that’s the age they can have sex and become parents, marry with parental nods of approval, and join the Army.

It’s because a lot of 16 year olds I’ve met have sounder judgement than some 60 year olds.

Jeremy Corbyn and Vince Cable agree, and the real reason Theresa May and the Tories are so against it is because teenagers tend not to vote for them.

Now I’m beginning to fear lowering the voting age will create a legal minefield which might blow up in our faces. I’m not exactly losing sleep over it, but of late I’ve been going to bed with a nagging doubt.

(Image: PA)

If 16 year olds can decide who should form a government they should also be able to lie on a sunbed. And if they can lie on a sunbed they can also be trusted to choose whether to buy cigarettes.

If they’re old enough to smoke surely they’re also old enough to drink. And if they can drink they should be able to buy kitchen knives to cut up fruit for their cocktails.

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But they’re forbidden from doing any of these until they are 18, and that will need straightening out if the voting age is lowered.

If 16 year olds can smoke, drink, sun themselves, and own sharp instruments should they not also decide whether to leave full time education or training?

(Image: Julian Hamilton / Daily Mirror)

And if they bin school and then misbehave they should be sent to an adult prison and not a young offender institution.

You should be feeling uncomfortable by now. That would mean hurling children into the hands of hardened and predatory criminals which feels like a giant leap too far.

My heart tells me 16 year olds should be able to vote on their own future , my head that before they do more thought must be put into what being an adult means.

So I’m of two minds. Which makes me wonder whether I’m fit to have the vote.

NELSON’S i

Tory MP Chris-Heaton-Harris tweets: “Just back from a statistical probability conference. I don’t want to be mean, but it was average.”

CRACKING THE WHIP

I was dimly aware years ago there were two Freemasons’ lodges in Parliament.

The New Welcome was for MPs, peers and staff and the Gallery for political journalists.

But it’s been so long since anyone gave me a funny handshake or lifted their trouser leg I assumed they’d long gone into liquidation. The Guardian reports otherwise.

(Image: Copyright unknown)

I’m sure masons do the valuable charitable work they claim. But a secret society has no place in public life.

Journalists should reveal secrets not keep them, and MPs should either register their membership or quit masonry.

And if anyone comes near me with rolled-up trousers they’ll get more than a silly handshake.

Lords celebrate peerages for women

(Image: PA)

Women could be MPs in 1918 but it was 1958 before they could be peers. Celebrating the 60th anniversary Baroness Floella Benjamin recalled becoming the first pregnant TV presenter allowed to show her baby bump on screen as recently as 1981. Another peer quoted Ottawa’s first woman mayor Charlotte Whitton saying: “Women must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult.”

Swiss role for Army knife

So many questions in life need answers but I find some of the most intriguing posed on the Quora website. Such as whether the Swiss Army knife is actually used by the Swiss Army? Serving NCO Alec Sprang confirms it is - the bottle opener for adjusting rifle sights and the big blade as a bread knife to make sandwiches.

There's a real drinking culture at Culture

(Image: Mercury Press & Media)

I don’t know what they’re drinking at Matt Hancock’s Culture Department but they should take more water with it.

Their hospitality budget is staggering around drunkenly. They’ve spent £46,400 on food and booze so far this financial year, and £52,000 last year.

They went on the wagon (ish) in 2015/16 splashing out just £9,600. But 2014/15 was a real blow-out costing £117,100.

Pull the other one, minister

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Sunday church bells are a comforting reminder of a gentler Britain. Housing minister Dominic Raab says new planning rules mean developers must soundproof homes from “nuisances...such as churches.”

Churches? Nuisances? Hell’s bells.