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

We’re going to use primaries to choose more of our publicly elected officials.
We want to encourage many more voters to get involved at a much earlier stage.
Not only will that make the process more open and transparent.
I’m also convinced it will help ensure that people of a high calibre come forward.
For example, the Tory candidate for mayor of London will be chosen this way.
We have to move away from political parties acting like closed cliques.
We also need to change the way we do politics in another respect.
Let’s be honest.
Politicians’ behaviour is a major factor in increasing the public’s sense of alienation and
cynicism.
Vigorous debate is important…
…And Parliament can still do that amazingly well.
Some of the speeches in the run up to the Iraq war were brilliant and heartfelt.
And the discussion on faith schools was a first class examination of the arguments for
and against.
But, often, the public sees MPs at their worst.
Point scoring.
Shouting.
Demanding resignations at a drop of a hat.
It means that when there’s a real scandal, such as the one we’ve seen in recent days, it
becomes harder to tell it apart from the more manufactured rows.
So when it comes to both organisation and behaviour politicians, as individuals, have to
work hard to make politics more accessible to the public.
That’s why, over the next few weeks and months, I’m going to try something different.
Instead of trotting out easy answers to familiar political problems, grouped together in
their neat departmental boxes…
NHS…
Education…
Social Security…
I’ll be making a series of speeches about the things that truly and profoundly affect