SCECLB220 Individual

Senedd Cymru | Welsh Parliament

Y Pwyllgor Biliau Diwygio | Reform Bill Committee

Bil Senedd Cymru (Rhestrau Ymgeiswyr Etholiadol)| Senedd Cymru (Electoral Candidate Lists) Bill

Ymateb gan Unigolyn | Evidence from Individual

What are your views on the general principles of the Bill and the need for legislation to deliver the Welsh Government’s stated policy objective (to make the Senedd a more effective legislature by ensuring it is broadly representative of the gender make-up of the population)?

This is tokenism at its worst.  If we are to be a democracy making closed lists of certain groups of people is not right.  How can the Welsh Government which has never had a female first minister (or for that matter a Labour Party which has never had a permanent female leader) claim legislation will solve a problem even the conservatives have managed to solve without laws.  If there is an issue I suggest it is not one which needs to be solved by introducing discrimination into law but by looking at ourselves and what politics in wales has become.

What are your views on the system of enforcement and potential sanctions for non-compliance proposed in the Bill?

Discriminatory against the people of wales who should have the right to elect who they choose as their representatives.

Are there any potential barriers to the implementation of the Bill’s provisions? If so, what are they, and are they adequately taken into account in the Bill and the accompanying Explanatory Memorandum and Regulatory Impact Assessment?

Are any unintended consequences likely to arise from the Bill?

This will cause a greater switch off of the Welsh population against both the senedd and welsh democracy in general.  The more politicians limit the field the more people will look to radical solutions while the political classes look after themselves rather than the public.

What are your views on the Welsh Government’s assessment of the financial and other impacts of the Bill?

The welsh government will hardly find itself against its own proposals.  However, if the senedd would make minsters and officials personally liable for additional costs above the estimates in this legal morass we would see where they stand on the accuracy of their claims.

What are your views on the balance between the information contained on the face of the Bill and what is left to subordinate legislation? Are the powers for Welsh Ministers to make subordinate legislation appropriate?

No they should not be taking is bill forward in any form nor giving themselves more powers at the expense of the people of wales.

Do you have any views on matters relating to the legislative competence of the Senedd including compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights?

While you may have a legislative competence to make this change it is not one you should make.  Having power but abusing it to limit the electoral choices of the people of wales is not democracy but the work of an anti-democratic house.

Do you have any views on matters related to the quality of the legislation, or to the constitutional or other implications of the Bill?

This bill would make the senedd even more of a disembodied political talking shop for the people of wales than it is presently.  Constitutionally making laws limiting the type of people who can run for or be elected to a democratic house rather smacks of the lash of the dictator or a political clique who don’t like the idea of folk who are outside of their control.

Are there any other issues that you would like to raise about the Bill and the accompanying Explanatory Memorandum or any related matters?

Anything else?

If you truly wish the senedd to represent the people of wales then let us appoint those new members for a single term selected as per a jury.  You would get a better cross section of wales through this form of selection than the proposed form.

The idea of a political list of politicians chosen not by the electorate but by back office apparatchiks should have no place in UK democracy.  Look to the Philippines where Imelda Marcos was elected a senator on a similar list system to avoid justice for her crimes for decades.  While we are not there yet your proposals are leading wales down a very dark and anti democratic path.