Welsh Labour elite rejects democracy

IT WAS heartening to hear Mark Drakeford’s recent support of a one man, one vote method of electing the next Welsh Labour leader and deputy leader. However, I think it’s in vain as the decision to use an electoral college has been made. The best we can hope for is that the unions ballot their members.

Rhodri Morgan was unequivocal when stating that Blair “shafted me” by manipulating the Welsh leadership election, ensuring Ron Davies then Alun Michael became leader, despite the fact Rhodri would have won by a landslide if the election had been democratic. Showing due deference to Blair by refusing to ballot their members, the union block vote indeed shafted Rhodri. Who can forget George Wright, general secretary of the Wales TUC and general secretary of the TGWU, and his proclamation from on high that he knew what his members wanted, and “one person, one vote: I’m the person”.

Now that the Welsh Labour elite have ignored the popular grassroots demand for one person, one vote, which is the process used by the English and Scottish Labour parties, it’s imperative that the unions ballot their members. This will give traditional Labour supporters the opportunity to prise away Welsh Labour from the dominant quasinationalists whose raison d’etre is

to placate those of a direct lineage to the sons of Owen Glendower.

We can then pursue the traditional values of Labour, which is to lift those families, no matter the colour of their skin, out of generations of poverty by giving educational and employment opportunities they are currently denied. Dennis Coughlin Llandaff, Cardiff