Cyflwynwyd yr ymateb hwn i ymgynghoriad y Pwyllgor Biliau Diwygio ar Fil Senedd Cymru (Aelodau ac Etholiadau).

This response was submitted to the Reform Bill Committee consultation on the Senedd Cymru (Members and Elections) Bill.

SCME340 Ymateb gan: | Response from: Karen Roden
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Dear Sir or Madam,

I am completely opposed to the scheme by Labour and Plaid to impose 36 new Senedd members on the people of Wales. We cannot afford it at a time when our NHS is falling apart, and Education has had its budget slashed. Many of our county councils are teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, too.

I do not believe for one minute the £21 m, or whatever it is today, being bandied about as the projected cost for these totally unnecessary additional ‘politicians’ over an eight year period, is remotely accurate. The running total, both immediate and longer term, will be far higher when you take into account the creation of offices, equipment, stationery, staffing, wages, expenses etc etc at a time of rapidly rising costs.  I do not feel it will improve our current democratic deficit at all, and nor do most people in Wales. You may think we are stupid, but really we are not. The majority did not vote Labour, and that will be reduced even further in forthcoming elections.

The rejigged/rigged new voting system (Single Transferable Vote) will be designed to link in with the addition of the new Senedd members – presumably orchestrated to be Labour/Plaid. It is nothing more than a power-grab, and Drakeford made it clear at the Labour Party conference when he said he wanted a Wales free of Conservatives. Yes, so very democratic. The mask slipped.

We should have a REFERENDUM on this. These plans should not be put in place before the next Senedd elections. I suspect the intention is to push this through, though, in order to keep both Labour and Plaid in power, yet again. If this was not the case, then Drakeford and Co would not have been so arrogant as to ignore the historic petition signed by nearly 500,000 people, and also announce that men can be women – a stance that helped bring down Sturgeon. So, something is afoot that makes the WG feel completely unassailable. It is a treacherous stitch-up of the people of Wales, which I hope I see Labour and Plaid rue.

We can see what you are doing Welsh Government.

Karen Roden,