The Swiss don't have a history of their inhabitants trying to murder each other though which is the big difference

This is a sound principle. There needs to be a statutory age over which voting rights are discontinued. No one over 70 can vote as they don’t have the same investment in the future. No vote = no opinion. What’s next? Anyone reaching 70 should be turned into Soylent Green to preserve the planets resources and have their assets seized by the state for the greater good. After, of course, being whipped through the streets for being so unspeakably selfish as not to have died the day they stopped working.

I think that what Wissy is trying to say is that once you get to 70 your faculties have diminished considerably so you probably don't have the mental faculties to understand the issues so it would be a kindness to the rest of the nation if one was barred from voting once you reach that age

I was never adamant about a no deal I just don't like this deal which is May's with a Boris twist.

I wish that were true, but it just isn't. The changes made are subtle but significant and could easily result in the whole thing being Shanghaied at the end of next year. The MPs have spotted it and they won't let it get through, I am sure of that.

My preference was always for a simple free trade deal and maybe in the future we will end up there but as of today I don't know what the outcome will be.

Nothing with a Brexit after 40 years could be simple.

Remainers have fought a very effective insurgency whilst the government has lurched from one crisis to the next.

That's true. They have woken up and got organised. Just as Leave had the whip hand in 2016 Remain does now because the "grass is greener" argument has switched sides.

Parliament has wasted 3 years rejecting ever possible outcome and the so called Government of National Unity led by Corbyn has quietly disappeared because the opposition whilst opposing Brexit are just as divided about the solution.

Ensuring we don't do anything stupid is hardly a waste of 3 years.

And whilst the Remainers have been very effective it is still possible that they will over play their hand and we end up with a no deal Brexit.

Of course, but really unlikely. We might still get this deal, after a GE, and then a no deal a year later, but not yet.

Still all to play for

That's true. The contest is looking as though it will be fought with facts this time though, simply because there are more available.

I had a German friend a long time ago who argued that democracy was too precious to be left to the people.

He seriously argued that there ought to be thresholds other than just a minimum age which you needed to pass before you were allowed a vote. His primary one was an intelligence test of some kind, although how he thought that would be administered was never made clear.