If you’re 16, parents still have an obligation to house, feed and protect you. The state has the authority to step in if parents fail. Third parties, like companies, governments and political parties, are regulated from exploiting teenagers. Make them adults and the responsibility to provide and protect withers and dies.

The real issue is about when childhood ends and with it the protections in law for children. Voting at 16, and all the other entitlements that would come between 16 and 18, are the rights of adults. Voting makes children into adults.

The dissenting judge said the majority has reduced the rights of everyone over 18 by slightly altering the composition of the voting electorate. I would argue it also affected the rights of under-18s to transition out of childhood without having the responsibilities of adulthood imposed too soon.

Josie's column about the Supreme Court's declaration is here.