Party Games

Of course the Wasting Mule  is largely critical of Plaid over the party's decision to to vote against the Labour Government in the Public Health Bill, causing it to fail. 

 Leighton Andrews has  referred to his Plaid colleagues as a ‘cheap date’ yesterday in the Senedd. 

Before the jibe enough Plaid AM were expected to back the government proposal in a free vote but one of these Elin Jones said

“Others have suggested it was unacceptable sexist, macho language, others that it was pre-meditated. All I can say is that the moment it was said, it could not be unsaid.
"It was not a flippant, feisty comment from the Labour backbenches. It was obvious to all present, Labour included, that a line had been crossed.
"Since then many accusations have come my way. Some have told me that I need to develop thicker-skin.
“I probably already have thicker-skin than most politicians. Yesterday was about one politician, one Government Minister, who sought party political advantage out of cross-party co-operation.
"He instantly put in jeopardy any future cross-party co-operation between political parties, by demeaning past co-operation.”

I am not going into the rights and wrongs here  but to question whether such a Bill should be whipped in the first place.

We can only wonder how many Labour AM in a free vote would have voted against the bill, but considering the arguments For and Against , whether this was good or bad for public health in its effectiveness in helping people to quit smoking and the question whether t vapours from e-cigs in public place were harmful. I suspect a number were opposed.

There were other parts to the Bill,  and I wonder why Labour didn't accept an amendment to remove the  e-cigs clause .

The question I am asking is such a measure something that is a clear Political issue or is something that should be left to the individual conscious  of legislatures.

It seems that our elected representative try to put party politics in to everything but there are surly issues that depend on whether you have a Libertarian or Authoritarian  streak

Even that is to simple with people often shifting positions.

Plaid were right to allow a Free   Vote in the first place  , Whether they were right to abandon this in reaction to  Leighton Andrews has  referring previous to his Plaid support  as a ‘cheap date’  is open to question.

But maybe the question should be why was the governing part whipped on such an issue . 

Could it be that if they did then the Bill would surely have not even got of the staring blocks?

Or maybe AMs from other Parties would be more cooperative?

I was unconvinced of the arguments on e-cigs on both sides , but lean to the belief that to impose some sort of  restriction would remove much of aid that people need to give up smoking.

If I was an AM or any Party I would be annoyed if I was told to vote either way in what is not  an issue of Political ideology.