Citizenship is vitally important. It’s important that it’s taught in our schools, but also, I would say that citizenship is important to us all, and understanding how we all live together is something that is vitally important. I very much hope that the way in which we change our politics to extend the franchise to young people, and to also ensure that we change the way in which we campaign when we stand for election—. I think that is going to be extremely important in inspiring people to vote for the first time.

The Member also tempts me once again—how shall I put this—on the issue of STV and the voting system. My personal view is completely clear, and the Member knows where I stand on this. I support STV for elections both here, Westminster and local government. I have no doubts on that and I agree with the Member on the benefits of STV. Of course, that would also assist to resolve the problem that Janet Finch-Sunders raised in her contribution with regard to the lack of competition for some seats in some parts of Wales.

But I, and I would suggest that you too, will have to acknowledge that there is not sufficient support currently to move to this system. Without general support across the country, I don’t believe that we should force or impose change of the electoral system on people. We create these new powers to enable councils to make their own decisions if they think the people they represent wish them to move in such a direction. But the only way we can change the general system is by pushing it through, and I don’t believe that I wish to do that, and I don’t believe that there is currently enough general support across the Chamber to do that. I’m sure that I would campaign with other Members to perhaps change that in the future, but that is where we are today, and I believe that the statement that I have made today reflects the current situation.

I agree with you when you talk about equalities and the way in which we can use the structures in local authorities to ensure that minority groups are represented in councils across the country. This has, of course, been a matter of discussion in at least one of the White Papers that we’ve seen on local government over the past few years. I am considering it at present—it’s not a central part of the statement that I have made this afternoon, but I did suggest in my statement that we would consider how we remunerate councillors in future in order to ensure that we can appeal to more people and create more opportunities for people to stand for election in the future. I do think that that would assist in ensuring that we have a more equal representation within chambers across the country in the future. So, I hope there will will be a discussion, and I will lead a discussion and debate on this in the ensuing months.