Will politicians get the voters’ message?

IT CAN be hard to draw conclusions about Wales from elections primarily taking place in England, but let’s give it a try.

The first conclusion has to be that the Police and Crime Commissioner position is a waste of public money, having failed to convince the public that there is any value in the role whatsoever.

Combined with the farcical decision to have the PCC elections under the first-past-the-post system, this has resulted in nothing less than an affront to democracy. Let’s take the Gwent Police PCC. The force has been mired in controversy after controversy in recent years. The previous PCC, Jeff Cuthbert, has seemingly spent most of his time defending the force rather than scrutinising them.

In the election to find his replacement, just 6.5% of the total electorate voted for the eventual winner.

That is a £73,000-a-year job for four years.

Elsewhere, it has been fairly clear that, with a general election coming up, the Conservatives have been using Wales as a testing ground for what policies might gain traction in the general election.

What they appear to have doubled down on is a strategy of positioning themselves as “pro-driver” and attacking policies such as the default 20mph speed limits and plans for congestion charges.

But if the London mayoral election showed us anything, it is that this issue simply doesn’t move the needle in any way close to what they will need.

Sadiq Khan went all in on the capital’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) scheme, despite knowing there was a risk it could cost him a third term.

He did this primarily because of the evidence that it would help improve the air quality in the city. It wasn’t a massively popular measure, but he stuck to his principles and was rewarded by crushing the populist candidates the Tories put up against him.

There are lessons here for both red and blue politicians in Wales.

Labour need to think carefully before they belittle their own 20mph policy.

And the Conservatives need to see that the populist rhetoric of their leader Andrew RT Davies is unlikely to return any real electoral gains for them in the Senedd. Will lessons be learned?

It seems unlikely. All of this was obvious before the recent votes – it doesn’t make much sense to expect it will suddenly sink in now.