Thursday 12 May 2016

Labour do not have a divine right to rule Wales.( Updated)

Lets face it  Yesterday's deadlock  in the Assembly where Labour's Carwyn Jones was expected to be re-appointed following Thursday's election was a delay 

 Plaid Cymru nominated its leader Leanne Wood, and won the backing of the Tories and UKIP, while Mr Jones won the support of sole Liberal Democrat Kirsty Williams and his own party.
With the vote tied at 29-29, the Senedd was adjourned to a later date.

Labour accused Plaid of doing a deal with the Conservatives and UKIP, something Plaid denied,

Despite losing one seat at the assembly election, Mr Jones had said he expected to form a minority Labour government with 29 of the assembly's 60 members.
On Friday, he spoke of having discussions with Plaid Cymru and Ms Williams to decide the way forward, but was not seeking any formal coalition.

Mr Jones remains first minister until assembly members vote to re-appoint or replace him.

Labour claim to have an mandate is reduced when if we look at a proportional representation election  has led them to have a unfair number of seats
  

Votes summary[edit]

Popular Vote
Labour
  
31.5%
Plaid Cymru
  
20.8%
Conservative
  
18.8%
UKIP
  
13.0%
Liberal Democrats
  
6.5%
Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party
  
4.4%
Green
  
3.0%
Other
  
2.0%
Parliament seats
Labour
  
48.3%
Plaid Cymru
  
20.0%
Conservative
  
18.3%
UKIP
  
11.7%
Liberal Democrats
  
1.7%

Labour are by far over represented in the Assembly and we must remember they lost only one seat with a 7.6 drop in the constituency vote and a drop of 5.4 in the regional vote.

Hardly a ringing endorsement from the electorate.

Challenging  the Party  with the largest vote by nominating a an opposition member is not uncommon even if a Party has a majority, Normally its just a gesture and does not lead to the sort of scenario we saw Yesterday,


Plaid's statement  on why they took this action.
On May 5, Wales chose not to elect one single party to govern Wales with a majority. As is the convention, the biggest party were given an opportunity to reach an agreement on forming a government which could lead Wales with the support of the majority of members in the National Assembly. They took the decision not to pursue that option, and were not prepared to give the process of negotiation any further time. As a result, the Plaid Cymru group followed normal Parliamentary protocol and nominated Leanne Wood for First Minister. Carwyn Jones was informed of this decision yesterday. Since that time, and as far as Plaid Cymru is aware, there have been no formal discussions, agreements or deals pursued between any party. This afternoon, the Assembly failed to reach agreement on who should become First Minister and form the next government. “It is now for the parties to discuss this matter further in order to seek the best outcome for Wales.

The Wasting Mule Wales Online page today looks you have been taken to "Welsh Labour's website and if you read that then Plaid have not come out of this too well

According to this morning BBC news Labour and Plaid  are already in discussion  over what happens next ,

Presumably  there  will  none of the cheap date jibes from Labour AM's on any compromise between the two as was made by Leighton Andrews.

Had Kirsty Williams, the sole Liberal Democrat in the assembly, voted with the other opposition parties, Leanne Wood would have become the first minister despite Labour being by far the largest party.

 La  Passionaria  said 
 “I was not re-elected to support a “a ragtag coalition made up of Ukip assembly members who at the moment can’t even agree with each other,”

Is she really saying that there no  scenario where she will vote alongside Ukip against Labour government policy?

If that is the case she might as well take the Labour Whip.

and thereby hangs the tale.

I said after the election that Labour will think that they can behave as a minority government because none of the opposition parties will look to defeating the Welsh Government  with the aid of Ukip.


I believe Yesterday's stunt was an attempt to warn Labour that they will have to talk to other parties and at some times compromise.
 

The idea that Leanne could be First Minister  next week is fanciful but yesterdays vote should be awrning t Labour they do not have Mandate   let alone the divine right some of them have o rue Wales.

Update
UKIP AM Nathan Gill is preparing to back Carwyn Jones's re-election as first minister, BBC Wales understands.
There was deadlock in the Senedd as Mr Jones and Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood were tied 29-29, with Lib Dem Kirsty Williams siding with Labour.
The Conservatives and the seven UKIP AMs joined Plaid in backing Ms Wood.
Another UKIP AM, Mark Reckless, told BBC Wales the whole UKIP group could back Labour if it supported the scrapping of the Severn Bridge tolls.
Mr Jones had been expected to be reinstated as first minister of a minority Labour government in the first Senedd session of the new assembly term on Wednesday.
But the meeting had to be adjourned to a later date after AMs voted 29-29..

It has been confirmed that  no deak was made bet Ukip and Plaid as claimed by Labour   who responded thus.


But there appears to be one by Carwyn  with at least a number po Ukip AM.
Is there a "Good" Ukip and a "Bad" Ukip.

Maybe we should know.

I accidentally deleted a comment earlier on  I appolgise it was not a attempt at censorship.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

To many Labour party members and their supporters (Wales Online), the view is that the Labour branch in Wales have a God given right to rule and control the country.

Fortunately for us, Carwyn Jones does not have an automatic right to be the First Minister of Wales.

In the case of Carwyn Jones and Labour in Wales today, the Devine Right of Kings no longer applies.

Anonymous said...

Kirsty Williams doesn't see here role as supporting “a ragtag coalition" in the Assembly.

Fair enough you might say. After all, I suppose many Lib Dems didn't vote for coalition with the Tories in 2010, but that's what they got and Kirsty always seemed happy to publicly support Clegg's decision to do so.

Probably, what all the electors of Brecon and Radnor want and the rest of us do as well, is to see Wales get a government in Cardiff Bay that tackles the problems we face due to Tory austerity cuts.

Perhaps this modern day Joan of Arc of the Lib Dems feels it's her destiny to save Wales from itself.