Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I look on my noble friend’s intervention with considerable respect, as I do all the matters that he raises. Clearly, he raises an important point. The essence of what I was saying is that, whereas from 21 to 18 there was a logical stopping point, I see no such point in going from 18 to 16. Indeed, I ask rhetorically where it will stop. The real reformers—the people trying desperately to be radical—will ask, ““Why stop at 16?””. It may not perhaps go down to babes and sucklings but next they will suggest, incrementally, ““Well, having had 16, why not 15 because we want to encourage people to take part in politics?””. They will ask, ““After all, this is a newly politicised generation; did we not see schoolchildren on the streets last week?””. Yes, but I am not sure whether those schoolchildren—we are now, I think, meant to call them school students—were or are likely to be worried about alternative votes, or a voting system of STV, or whatever it is.