Letter: How’s that then?

The cricketer Ollie Robinson has been suspended from international cricket for offensive racist and sexist tweets he posted when he was 18 or 19 years of age. The matter is under investigation after which the future of his international career will be decided.

There have been many statements from public figures, notably the Prime Minister and the Culture Secretary, putting forward their opinion that the suspension of Mr Robinson is “over the top” and that “he was only a teenager but is now an adult”.

That seems fair comment but the fact is that this teenager was old enough, and therefore responsible enough, to vote in any UK election. He was also old enough and deemed responsible enough to get married, drive a car and drink alcohol unsupervised.

Even though I deplore racism and sexism and probably every other ‘ism, I hope that education and a ‘proper’ apology from the player, rather than reading out a prepared statement, resolves the issue and Mr Robinson can resume his international career.

I am a cricket lover and he is a huge talent and I want to see him play but he must prove that he is indeed a different person now.

With regards the voting age there are calls for it to be reduced from 18 years of age to 16. I was one of the first to be able to vote at 18. Before that most young people left school at 15 or 16 but had to work for five years to earn the vote.

Now, with so many young people going to university this change of voting age would mean that they would have the vote five years BEFORE they start work.

A big change in a little over 50 years.