Welsh Labour has the chance to do something truly radical
THE big question facing the Labour Party in Wales is not just who should be its next leader, but how he or she should be elected.
This will shortly be decided at a special conference where former Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy will present his “democracy review”.
The debate has been framed as a choice between two options – should the existing system stay in place which gives special influence to parliamentarians, unions and affiliates, or should it be one member one vote?
But Welsh Labour could make a wilder decision that would utterly change the dynamics of Welsh politics. It could give everyone in Wales a say.
Imagine it. What if every person in Wales aged 16 or above could cast a vote for who will take the helm of Labour in this country?
The argument for such a move is simple. This election is not just about who leads Labour, but who leads this nation.
Wales is about to enter a chapter of epic change with the UK quitting the European Union.
Carwyn Jones led Labour to success in 2016 but now he is heading to the backbenches.
Whoever succeeds him will face mighty challenges as he or she seeks to keep investment alive, protect public services, and hammer out a deal for how power will be shared between the different nations of the UK; he or she will face perhaps the most daunting to-do list of anyone who has held the post.
The new First Minister would be infinitely strengthened if he or she had a personal mandate not just from Labour’s most committed supporters but from voters across the entire country.
Just as a US Governor has the confidence to bang the table when talking to a President because he or she won a ballot in which everyone in the state could vote, such an endorsement would only enhance the new First Minister’s negotiating position.
What a signal it would send to the rest of the UK about the value Wales places on democratic participation. What a challenge it would throw down to other parties.
Putting to one side the sheer nobility of such a move, it would be a glorious opportunity for Welsh Labour to forge bonds with a new generation of voters and stop its opponents turning its strengths into weaknesses.
Since the advent of the Assembly, the leader of Welsh Labour has also led the government. Labour can take pride in this.
Even in a nation with such a strong Labour heritage, there was no guarantee it would dominate Welsh politics.
It has avoided the fate of Scottish Labour, which far from enjoying a hegemonic position in the Edinburgh Parliament has been pushed into third place behind the SNP and the Conservatives.
But one of the greatest threats any party of government faces is that voters decide it is “time for a change”. We can be sure that the new leaders of the Welsh Conservatives, Plaid Cymru and Ukip will deploy this argument in 2021.
They will make the case that it is just not healthy in a modern democracy to have one party always in power.
“Wales isn’t Cuba,” they will argue. “And anyway, Labour needs some time out of power to have a rest from government, reconnect with voters, listen to ordinary people and come up with new policies to make poverty and under-performance a thing of the past.”
Labour could fire a torpedo at this argument right away if it gave everyone a say in the choice of the next First Minister.
By sharing one of the most important decisions a party can make with an entire nation it would send out a mighty signal that its leaders are committed to listening to all citizens in every part of Wales.
At a time when internal party politics and rows between left-wingers and moderates in the UK party are making headlines, a Wales-wide election would be a demonstration that Labour in Wales is not navelgazing but focused on the priorities of ordinary people.
It would also be a sign of confidence that Welsh Labour really does believe that its values are those of the people of Wales; trusting men and women to choose who should helm a party that is committed to solidarity and fraternity in the 21st century would be nothing less than a statement of faith.
One of the biggest struggles for Welsh politicians is name recognition.
The contest would boost the profile not just of the winner but of all the candidates.
The victor would go into the job with people who backed him or her – even those who normally vote for other parties – feeling a sense of personal buy-in and hoping that the new First Minster is able to bring to reality those visions sketched out on the campaign trail.
Such an election system would also set a precedent that if a leadership election will result in a change of First Minister the whole electorate should have a say.
It would be hard for Plaid, the Conservatives and Ukip not to follow Labour’s example.
Welsh Labour could point to the campaign slogan that helped power the UK party to a far better than predicted election result last year and say it truly exists “for the many, not the few”.
The party would still have control of the nomination process, and obviously only Labour AMs could stand.
This would eliminate any risk that a mischievous Tory might run for the Labour leadership.
There would be a significant cost to staging such a big election but it would not be necessary to set up polling stations like in a national election or referendum.
It should not be beyond the competence of our finest IT expects to devise a secure digital system – and it would be thoroughly reasonable to ask people to pay a couple of pounds each to take part in this epic exercise of democracy.
Just 514 votes were cast in the recent Welsh Ukip election.
It would be a resoundingly good thing if parties in Wales competed to be the first to see a million voters take part in a leadership contest – and if this nation blazed a trail that the rest of the UK followed, so much the better.