UK firmly rejects disenfranchising the unemployed

The single most striking result of the day was the emphatic rejection of any attempt to strip long-term unemployed people of their right to vote. The UK made clear there is no coherent argument for disenfranchising citizens on the basis of their employment status, voting No by more than three to one.

The verdicts

Should the school-leaving age be lowered to 14, with pupils then entering paid apprenticeships? met the same fate. The country said 14 is too young, not because it opposes apprenticeships but because it believes a broader education must come first.

On rights questions the pattern held. Should abortion be made illegal in the UK? was thrown out by more than seven to one, though the strongest voices defended a regulated right rather than unlimited access. Should legal exemptions exist under religious belief grounds? also fell, with the UK insisting that equality before the law is the price of religious freedom, not its exception.

Foreign policy and defence produced the day's clearest Yes votes. Should Andy Burnham meet Donald Trump at the UN? passed overwhelmingly. Should Britain be giving military support to Saudi Arabia to fight the Houthis in Yemen? carried by two to one, a reluctant verdict driven less by fondness for Riyadh than by worry over closed shipping lanes and their cost at home.

Should the UK-US medicine pricing agreement have an independent audit? also won decisively; the chamber treated the missing books as the story and insisted the NHS should not serve as a corporate piggy bank for US pharma giants.

Energy proved more divisive. Should the UK replace domestic energy billing charges with a fixed allocation of units at a fixed price? was rejected by the country, which saw the idea as a riskier cure for a billing system it already regards as opaque.

Voting continues today on fresh questions.

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