Public Elections - reduction in voting age to 16 - States Assembly

That has to change.
Another element of Parliament that’s long overdue for reform is the House of Lords.
A strong and effective Parliament needs a strong and effective second chamber.
The current House of Lords does some things really well.
It’s good at scrutiny and revision - and asking the Government to think again.
But it lacks authority and legitimacy.
In my view the Lords must have a significant elected element if it is to play a full and
proper role.
The term sleaze has now become a byword for the failings of the political class.
It’s ridiculous that the final, indeed often the only, arbiter of ministerial probity is the
Prime Minister.
That system of self-regulation inspires little confidence.
The only way we can start to repair the damage done to the reputation of politics is to
insist on genuinely independent scrutiny from top to bottom. And that must include the
Ministerial code.
The second part of institutional rebalancing is to shift power from a national to a local
level.
I’m talking about a system of local democracy with real muscle.
A healthy, functioning society cannot be run from Westminster and Whitehall alone.
Decisions about local matters should, wherever possible, be taken locally.
And the quality of these decisions should be judged by local voters.
We should trust the people on the ground.
They understand better than any remote bureaucrat what’s right for their area.
Local people are far more likely to know what’s right for their area than control freaks
sitting in Whitehall.
We need a bonfire of the directives, audit systems, best value regimes, ring fencing and
all of the stark paraphernalia of the Whitehall-control-freak regime that tells Local
Authorities what they can and can’t do.
I’m determined to reclaim the proud tradition within the Conservative Party of local rule
and civic pride that stretches back to Chamberlain.
Tony Blair has encouraged limited experiments in local democracy such as directlyelected
mayors.
I support that and I intend to encourage much more of it.