We’ve already had a second referendum
THE last sentence in Mrs A Pearce’s letter (Western Mail, March 2) asked the question “is a second referendum needed on whether we still want a Welsh Assembly?”.
That question has actually been answered in the referendum on more powers for the Assembly. The answer was a resounding yes. And in questioning Wales’ financial situation, she’s criticising the wrong government. My argument would be that we get rid of the Westminster stranglehold on Wales by voting for Welsh independence.
The reason? Welsh votes count for almost nothing. It doesn’t matter how we vote, the Westminster government will be decided by voters in England. With just 40 MPs, Wales is represented in Westminster by just 6% of MPs. If the boundary commission proposals are implemented and the 40 is reduced to 29, we’ll have just 4.5%.
In Assembly elections voters in Wales have total control over who runs the Welsh parliament. I’m no fan of Labour, but the fact is that it was voters in Wales who elected them. And if we think they are doing a bad job, we have the ability to vote them out. It’s our choice.
So I find it incredibly strange that some people, like Mrs Pearce, want to abolish the Assembly and pass all their powers back to Westminster. To what end? When Labour are in power in Westminster then, in theory, Wales is represented. But that’s only because this coincides with what voters in England want. They decide who governs by having 533 MPs to vote in. But even then, if England decides to vote Labour into government, the 40/29 Welsh Labour MPs would still be just a small fraction of the 330 or so Labour MPs in parliament. Their voice will still be minute.
Over the past 100 years there have been 28 general elections. In that time Wales has never voted for a Tory government but has had to endure being governed by the Tories after 20 of those elections.
So I’ll ask the question again. If Wales almost never gets the government it wants at Westminster, what on earth is the logic in saying we should scrap the Welsh government and give what little control we have back to Westminster?
John Young Llangyfelach, Swansea