Anyone reading the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Bill which has just completed its final stage in the Welsh Parliament, the Senedd, might be forgiven a yawn. After the groundbreaking provision which extends the local government franchise to 16- and 17-year-olds and foreign citizens resident in Wales, it starts to read like any other piece of convoluted local government legislation: a lawyer's paradise with no obvious connection to everyday life. The reality is that this legislation will positively transform the experience of democratic engagement and empowerment in every part of Wales, at a time when nihilistic Trump-style populism has been challenging the nature of democracy across the globe.
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