A system designed to maintain the status quo
IF I understand the Welsh law-making process correctly, the Members and Elections Bill will be voted into law on Wednesday, May 8, ushering in a new voting system – described as “proportional” but actually far less proportional than the system it will replace – designed and intended to lock Labour and Plaid Cymru into a permanent duopoly of Senedd power.
Just in case there was any doubt what was going on, it was spelled out by Plaid’s former leader Adam Price, their Mab Doragon (Son of Prophecy), during the Senedd’s plenary debate last week.
And prophesy he certainly did, singing like a great big booming canary, willingly surrendering his proposed amendments in the interests of greater legislative haste: “We cannot wait until the next Senedd … the wave of populist, unscrupulous politicians, the purveyors of posttruth politics – you know, we’re not immune from that. That’s coming in our direction, and it would be too late to act by the next Senedd; we need to act in this Senedd.”
There it is – the fear of the new and the self-interested defensiveness that flows from that. The desperation to get things set in stone. Bang the bell, I’m on the bus. Or to misquote Nye Bevan: “This is my truth, keep yours to yourself.”
Just to recap, for anyone new to this issue. The only piece of numerical modelling on the new electoral system that was ever allowed to leak into the public domain showed the following:
In a six-member constituency Labour might win four seats with a 40% vote share, the Conservatives might win a single seat with an 18% share, Plaid one seat with 16%, the LibDems would get no seats for 9% and the Greens nothing for 7%.
Twice as many votes would be needed to elect a Tory as to elect a Labour MS; Labour gained twothirds of the seats from two-fifths of the votes; and 26% of the votes cast were “wasted”. The minimum vote share needed to win a seat is around 14%, as against 7% in the outgoing system. Prior to the plenary debate last week I was scandalised to discover a Welsh Government briefing document was misinforming members preparing to take the legislative decision that: “It is considered by the Welsh Government that the closed list proportional system provided for by this legislation will enable greater proportionality than the current Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system.”
The WG may consider this to be true, but it certainly is not. I made a formal complaint, but it won’t make any difference.
So what more can I say? – You’ve been had.
Dave Bradney
Joppa, Llanrhystud
There it is – the fear of the new and the selfinterested defensiveness that flows from that
Dave Bradney Llanrhystud