He believes that as they are associated with proportional representation they will benefit in votes from having both on May 5th 2011.
In his blog he writes.
“The idea that we could somehow partition off our own referendum and Assembly elections from the rest of the UK and stand aloof from the wider considerations of the UK Government is a separatist's wet dream. I am astonished that Labour are playing along with this outrage without realising that what they are actually arguing for is the removal of the Welsh political system from the Union.”
In Scotland the last Scottish Parliament elections were held on the same day with the council elections (on different electoral systems) was a fiasco.
What Peter and the Con-Lib coalition are asking is for people to vote on May 5th for an Assembly via one electoral system and pick another electoral system for Westminster. This is daft!
But why should we have the Welsh Assembly Elections on the same as that for the Scottish Parliament and English Councils anyway? Just have a look at the Parties & Elections in Europe website (well worth viewing in itself) which shows other European States have elections to their devolved legislature at different dates.
The last Assembly election saw Wales ignored whilst the media concentrated on Scotland .Would it not benefit democracy,if we held the Welsh assembly elections on its own day? The Assembly elections should be an emphasis on the uniqueness of Wales that is shown by devolved powers. Peter Black surely knows this?
It says something about the Lib-Dems in Wales that Glyn Davies gives a more reasonable and moderate viewpoint on the proposals.
Peter Black is becoming more and more desperate in defending the indefensible ,and his choice of words resembling arch-unionist politician which can be shown by his endorsement by the Stonemason in the comments on his post.
“Well said, you have my vote, and a good many of the other voters in Wales”.
By your friends so shall we Know you,
2 comments:
The reason the Welsh Assembly elections and local Government elections were separated had nothing to do with confusion but because Labour were getting hammered in both by association and felt that they had a better chance of retaining their local government base and/or staying in Government in Wales if voters were not judging them on their record in both at the same time.
Peter,
You may be right about Labour’s true intentions but the actual arguments given at the time by Edwin Hart that.
"It was evident following the May 1999 elections that it would be beneficial to separate the local government and National Assembly elections. Holding the local government elections in May 2004 will ensure that the logistical complexity in terms of organising two such large and significant elections simultaneously does not occur again".
is a valid one.
What was your and the Lib-dems position on this at the time?.
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