The cost-of-living is on the up, a war rages in Europe, and strikes are proliferating across transport services, yet in spite of these challenges Labour and Plaid have decided to prioritise plans for more politicians in Cardiff Bay.
At a time when families across Wales face difficult financial choices, the Labour Government and their nationalist partners have proposed expanding the Senedd at cost of up to £100 million for Welsh taxpayers.
The people of Wales do not want to see money that could be used to alleviate hardship plundered for more politicians. Instead they want to see more job opportunities, an end to the decline in Welsh education standards and action taken to address Labour’s record long NHS waiting times – the worst in the UK.
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The addition of more politicians is already a gross misuse of taxpayer’s money, but the very way in which has been handled has shown contempt for Welsh democracy, which these plans will severely undermine.
Last year, the Special Purpose Committee on Senedd reform was established to better investigate the impacts that a reconstituted legislature would have.
In a blatant act of disregard for the Welsh Parliament, Mark Drakeford and Adam Price issued a joint statement on their proposed plans before the Committee had issued its conclusions.
This rejection of a parliamentary processes they instigated demonstrates that it was all for show. The decision to waste time and resources on something which Mark Drakeford and Adam Price knew they would circumvent was an insult to the parliament they claim to want to strengthen.
Everyone knows that Mark Drakeford is looking for a legacy beyond dilapidated public services but this is not the way to secure one.
Supporters of an expanded Senedd cite the upcoming reduction of Welsh MPs – but this is down to a boundary review that shows Wales is overrepresented in Westminster, not some plot to silence us.
Apparently, the proposed plans for more members will allow for greater scrutiny. Yet, week after week in First Minister's Questions, Adam Price chooses to talk about everything for which Mark Drakeford is not responsible.
Indeed, one could argue Plaid and Labour are deliberately not securitising property because it serves their ultimate cause to get more members, get more powers, and complete their state-building process towards an independent Wales. After all, Mark Drakeford and many of his Labour colleagues appear to be unionist in name only.
Also, the new election system they have chosen happily for themselves does not mean more scrutiny. The Drakeford-Price plan would see the 32 parliamentary constituencies that come into existence after the boundary review paired to create 16 enormous seats with six MSs each, taken from a closed list ranked by parties, not the public.
So not only do they not want a referendum to endorse their plan because they know it will never get the support it needs but, they want to take power from the people and give it to political parties who will decide which candidates get the best chance of winning.
This would happen in large constituencies – one could make up over a fifth of Wales’ landmass – which does nothing but distance politicians from the very voters to whom they are supposedly accountable. Devolution is supposed to mean putting power in the hands of communities, yet this only serves to take it away.
These closed lists, under the plans, would be gender zipped – meaning men and women would have to alternate their position on the list to ensure a gender balanced parliament.
Regardless of how legally questionable this is, it is morally wrong and practically unneeded. Wales has already voted in a gender balanced Assembly in the past – in one term, women actually outnumbered men – and I do not know anyone who would enjoy electoral success on the basis of their sex, just as they would resent failure on the basis of their sex too.
Besides, the left-wing parties’ inability to define what is a woman will in itself create loopholes and problems to such an extent that the rules might become meaningless anyway.
Finally, there is the issue of consent. There is no popular mandate for these changes. We have seen that in polls, but we also saw it in last year’s devolved election where Plaid fell into third place.
Yes, Labour won, but stating “we will build on the work of the Senedd Committee on electoral reform” and “develop proposals to improve the representation of the people of Wales in their Parliament” is not nearly explicit enough to be taken as carte blanche for dramatically changing the electoral system scrapping first past the post and increasing the size of the parliament by 60% without consulting voters. They didn’t even talk about it during the election.
The simple truth is the people of Wales have not voted for this change and these plans do not enjoy the support of the public.
Every major change to Welsh democracy has, rightly, been preceded with a referendum.
The Welsh Conservatives are prepared to test the public appetite for this drastic change and, if the people of Wales decide they want more politicians in the Senedd, we will honour the results of the referendum.
While the parties of the left issue hollow platitudes about Welsh democracy, I can’t help but reflect on their desire to ignore the will of the people of Wales who voted to leave the European Union.
For years, both Labour and Plaid essentially told the people of Wales they got the answer wrong and needed to try again. I suppose this is why they do not want to put their proposals to the test.
If they are serious about democracy, if they believe their proposals are needed and desired, if they trusted the voters, then Labour would deliver our calls to put this to the people of Wales in a referendum.
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