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A year from now the Scots will be voting on whether or not they should break away from the U.K. and become an independent nation. I would argue that only those who are mature and have some experience of life should be involved in making such a momentous choice, but the SNP has cunningly insisted that quite young teenagers should be allowed to vote, and (cynically in my opinion) it has adopted policies that would appeal to them so that they will be likely to vote for independence - something they could easily come to regret in future years.

A few weeks ago I started a thread in the 'Health' section of this forum under the title "Cannabis erodes your I.Q.", and I included the following words, which apply here too:  "... we need to be aware of certain facts concerning how our brains develop.  After the age of 8, and all the way up to about the age of 24, our pre-frontal lobes - the very portion of our brains that we use to do our reasoning and deep thinking - undergo a renewal process to prepare us for full adulthood (incidentally, this explains the 'crazy mixed-up kid' phenomenon).  Most of us appreciate the fact that we only really feel grown-up when we arrive at the age of 25, and this explains why that is."