Politics

Paul Davies calls for ‘devolution revolution’

Published

4 years ago

October 8, 2020

THE WELSH GOVERNMENT has enough powers to do what it needs to do for the people of Wales and should stop pretending it has powers in policy areas outside its remit.
That was the uncompromising message of Conservative leader Paul Davies MS when interviewed by The Herald this week.

Instead of dabbling in international relations and commissioning reports into the potential devolution of powers over the justice system, the Welsh Government should direct its attention at those areas in which its powers can do the most good for Wales, Mr Davies said.

Rather than seeking new powers, Cardiff Bay should look at successive governments’ failures on health policy, education, and Wales’ fragile economy.

When challenged about whether his approach signalled a lack of ambition for Wales’ future, Paul Davies said: “I have plenty of ambition for Wales. The Conservatives are ambitious for Wales. But we have got to get to grips with the issues which affect Wales after twenty years of Labour-led rule in Cardiff.

“The structure of government needs to be overhauled and we must have Ministers who are accountable for their policy areas. Whatever goes wrong with its current policies, whatever mistakes are made, with Labour it’s always someone else’s fault. The Government is never to blame.

“That has to end and that is one of the most important changes that will take place if I am First Minister after May 2021.”

When it came to that sort of radical restructure, we probed further about what Mr Davies had in mind.

“Angela Burns is doing excellent work at the moment with our planned Office for Government Resilience and Efficiency (OGRE). She is working with colleagues to identify where we can get rid of duplication and waste in the current system. There are too many announcements; too many consultations; too much dither and delay before the Welsh Government gets round to doing anything.

“We will drive through an ambitious policy agenda which delivers services people need in good time. The Welsh Labour-led government is spending more time saying its thinking about policy than delivering the improvements Wales needs and its people deserve. To do that, we will cut the chatter and get on with the job.
“Ministers need to make decisions and be accountable for them in the Senedd and to the public.”

We suggested that breaking the cycle of Labour victories in Wales would be tough to achieve, but Paul Davies said there was cause for optimism.

Reflecting on the historically dismal turnout for elections to the Welsh Parliament, he said: “You have to remember that Wales has never elected a majority Labour Government. At the moment, it has a Liberal Democrat in the Cabinet. One of its other Ministers (Dafydd Elis Thomas) sits as an independent. Without those votes, Labour would be in a minority. Labour has been propped up by the Liberal Democrats and by Plaid Cymru in the past.

“Recent polls show an improving position for the Conservatives in Wales.”

Referring to those polls, we pointed out that they still did not show a majority for a Conservative government or even for the Party being the largest in the Senedd after next May’s elections.

“In last December’s General Election, we got an unprecedented share of the vote in Wales. Our job, as Welsh Conservatives is to convince those voters to turnout and vote Conservative for the Senedd. Our analysis shows that if we manage to get 75% of those voters who voted Conservative last December to vote Conservative in May 2021, we will get over the line and be in the best position to form a government.”

The remote possibility of a Plaid/Conservative agreement seems to have vanished. Last week, Adam Price ruled out a coalition with the Conservatives or supporting an effort by the Conservatives to form a government. That seems to leave little arithmetical room for manoeuvre. On the question of where the Conservatives would draw support from if it was the largest party but didn’t have a majority, Paul Davies wouldn’t be drawn.

“We will have to gauge that position if it arises. There are possibilities of drawing support from elsewhere, but I make no bones about it: I am aiming to form a government for Wales.”

In light of the close relationship between the Welsh Government and Wales’ national media, we asked whether Paul Davies thought his message could get through.
He didn’t mince his words in reply.

“The current Government gets an easy ride when it comes to scrutiny by Wales’ national media. Opposition voices are drowned out. It’s only recently that BBC Wales has started allowing opposition parties to respond the Welsh Government’s televised coronavirus broadcasts. That’s vitally important, because we’re not getting much chance to scrutinise the government’s announcements before they are broadcast.”

Mr Davies was, of course, referring to the latest and continuing row over the Welsh Government’s practice of delivering policy announcements in a way that avoids direct scrutiny by opposition parties before they have been spun to broadcast and print media.

“The right place for ministers to make announcements is in the Senedd. Look at the ridiculous position we have at the moment. Ministers can make it to the Welsh Government’s offices. They can get to Cathays Park for television broadcasts. They cannot, however, make the journey to the Senedd – which is where they should be – to answer questions and be held to account!

“It’s ridiculous that Ken Skates (Minister for the Economy and MS for Clwyd South) makes an announcement in Cardiff and then goes back to North Wales but can’t – or won’t – appear before the Senedd.

“Questioning ministers over a digital link is not the same as being able to question them on the floor of the Senedd Chamber. Welsh Government ministers are getting away with ducking scrutiny and Wales’ national media are letting them get away with it.”

We concluded by asking what positive message voters could take away from our interview.

“Make no mistake, what I want to deliver is a devolution revolution. A government which delivers for all of Wales and not just for parts of it. Too often, local concerns are swept aside because of big national strategies. We will be smarter and look at local circumstances. I’ve campaigned to stop Withybush being downgraded and losing services for years. Why are services being taken away? Because Welsh Labour says so. It doesn’t understand that Wales is more than those bits of it which vote Labour.

“We must have better services, delivered more efficiently, and for which Welsh Government ministers are properly accountable. That needs radical change and that is why I call it a devolution revolution. After twenty years of Welsh Labour government, its failed on its core responsibilities: health, education, and the economy – I want to do more and do it better. Devolution hasn’t failed Wales, Welsh Labour has.”

News

Campaigners urge Welsh Government to adopt proportional representation for Local Elections

Published

27 mins ago

November 14, 2024

Tom Sinclair

CAMPAIGNERS are calling on the Welsh Government to introduce the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system for local elections, following moves by two councils to shift away from the First Past the Post (FPTP) system being blocked on technical grounds.

Yesterday (Nov 14), Ceredigion Council voted narrowly, with an 18 to 17 majority, in favor of adopting STV. This follows Gwynedd Council’s decision last month, where 65% of councillors backed the move. However, both councils have been prevented from implementing STV due to a requirement for a two-thirds majority under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.

In recent consultations, public support for STV has been overwhelming, with over 70% in Gwynedd and 67% in Ceredigion favoring the change. Only Powys Council rejected the proposal, despite 60.5% of its respondents supporting STV. Campaigners argue that the current system deprives voters of representation, citing that over 100,000 people were denied a vote in the 2022 elections due to uncontested seats.

The Electoral Reform Society Cymru (ERS Cymru) highlights the contrast with Scotland, where the introduction of STV for local elections in 2007 has significantly reduced uncontested seats. According to ERS Cymru, Scotland has had fewer uncontested seats in the last four elections combined than Gwynedd Council recorded alone in 2022.

Jess Blair, Director of ERS Cymru, said:

“Decisions made in council chambers affect everyone in those areas, so every vote should count. It’s absurd that councils choosing STV are blocked by a technicality, leaving them stuck with an outdated system that denies representation to thousands. The Welsh Government must act to avoid repeating the undemocratic outcomes of the last elections.”

Campaigners are now calling on the Welsh Government to introduce STV across all councils in Wales, ensuring representation that reflects the electorate’s wishes.

Politics

Alarm over Wales’ domestic violence ‘epidemic’

Published

3 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter

DOMESTIC violence against women and girls is the scourge of Wales and a national emergency, Senedd Members warned.

Mabon ap Gwynfor said Welsh police reported more than 45,000 cases of domestic abuse in 2022/23 and almost 10,000 sexual offences the previous year, with many more unrecorded.

Leading a Senedd debate, the Plaid Cymru politician challenged a tendency to believe rural Wales is an exception, with domestic abuse “limited” to urban areas only.

“The evidence shows otherwise,” he said. “Rates of domestic abuse in north Wales are higher than those in the city of London.

“North Wales even faces the same level of sexual crimes as Greater Manchester, which has a population five times the size.”

Mr ap Gwynfor added: “I am afraid the election of President Trump in the US is going to make things much worse as he makes misogynistic attitudes acceptable again.”

He said victims wait a year for support in Cardiff or Merthyr but four months in Swansea, asking: “How can we justify someone’s trauma being dependent on a postcode lottery?”

He told the Senedd that 16 children per 1,000 in north Wales are being seen by sexual assault referral centres compared with a rate of 2.9 per 1,000 in London.

Mr ap Gwynfor said the NSPCC found one in five children have experienced domestic violence, with Childline Cardiff holding 4,000 counselling sessions in the past year.

Calling for urgent devolution, he warned that prosecution statistics suggest sexual violence has effectively been legalised, with victims let down and public trust eroded.

Labour’s Joyce Watson said a vigil will be held outside the Senedd on November 25 to mark White Ribbon Day, the international day for ending violence against women and children.

Ms Watson highlighted her party’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade, calling for funding from Westminster to further the aim in Wales.

She told the Senedd: “It is a national threat and it is an epidemic. There’s no getting away from that. It’s deep-rooted, it’s wide-reaching.”

Sioned Williams raised the NSPCC’s calls for sustainable long-term funding for specialist support for children and young people who are survivors of domestic violence.

Her Plaid Cymru colleague Luke Fletcher warned of the “corrosive” effect of social media, calling for a crackdown on misogynistic content targeted at young men.

Responding to the debate on November 13, Jane Hutt pointed to progress made in tackling violence against women and girls but she recognised “so much more needs to be done”.

Ms Hutt, who is Wales’ social justice secretary, highlighted horrifying statistics from July showing that two million women in the UK are victims of male violence every year.

She described domestic violence as a national emergency, with one woman killed by a man every three days and the number of recorded offences up 37% in the past five years.

She hailed the 20th anniversary of the Live Fear Free helpline, a free 24/7 service run by Welsh Women’s Aid and funded by the Welsh Government.

Ms Hutt said she raised evidence of failures in the justice system with Jess Phillips during a meeting with the UK minister

Politics

Senedd debates Eluned Morgan’s first 100 days as First Minister

Published

10 hours ago

November 14, 2024

Chris Haines, ICNN Senedd reporter

SENEDD members debated Eluned Morgan’s record following her first 100 days, with the First Minister rejecting claims she has failed to stand up for Wales.

Andrew RT Davies led a Conservative debate on the eve of November 14, which marks Eluned Morgan’s hundredth day in office.

He accused the First Minister of letting the country down, pointing to the withdrawal of the universal winter fuel allowance for pensioners and warnings of 4,000 premature deaths.

The leader of the opposition also criticised Labour’s decision to raise national insurance contributions for employers, with unemployment in Wales at 5.3% and rising.

Mr Davies said 4,000 patients have been added to NHS waiting lists since the First Minister took office in August, with a total of 614,000 people now waiting for treatment.

He told the Senedd: “That is a damning indictment of government failure here …. That is not standing up for patients here in Wales, it’s not standing up for clinicians, and it’s not standing up, importantly, for the workforce.”

Rhun ap Iorwerth said Baroness Morgan’s first 100 days have shown little evidence of a change in direction from the Welsh Government.

The Plaid Cymru leader said: “By any objective measure, nothing has fundamentally changed in those 100 days.”

He said Baroness Morgan has no plan to grow the economy nor tackle a crisis in the NHS.

Mr ap Iorwerth accused the First Minister of failing to make the case for replacing the Barnett formula, devolving the Crown Estate, and compensating Wales for HS2 spending.

He said: “I’m afraid that what we’ve seen is Labour in Welsh Government, under the new First Minister, shifting into the mode of defending their masters at Westminster….

“A fundamental difference between Plaid Cymru and Labour is that we will never let Westminster diktat hamper our ambitions for Wales.”

Labour’s Hefin David was unconvinced by the 100-day measure of success, which was coined by former US President Franklin Roosevelt in the 1930s.

He said: “It worked for him; I’m not sure it’s going to work so much across modern politics, which moves so quickly and so differently.”

He suggested the next Senedd election in 18 months will be a much better yardstick.

The Caerphilly Senedd Member pointed out that Wales’ first female First Minister, from Ely, Cardiff, one of the poorest parts of the UK, succeeded against the odds.

Describing Baroness Morgan as a “listening First Minister”, Dr David joked: “She’s the only First Minister who gives me a cwtch every time I see her. I can see Mark Drakeford getting a little worried there. I’m not expecting anything, finance minister.

“But I do think it demonstrates the warmth of Eluned Morgan.”

Responding to the debate, Eluned Morgan reeled off a list of achievements including £28m to cut waiting times, £13m on better end of life care and a new north Wales medical school.

She said £7.7m has been invested in a specialist burns and plastic surgery centre at Swansea’s Morriston Hospital, serving ten million people from Aberystwyth to Oxford.

Baroness Morgan lauded a “landmark” £1bn investment in the redevelopment of Shotton Mill, Deeside, protecting 137 jobs and creating 220 more.

She claimed the Labour Welsh and UK Governments also secured a better deal for Tata steelworkers, accusing the Tories of failing to budget for a £80m transition fund.

“This is a lengthy list,” she said. “But it could be longer and it will be longer as we continue to deliver…. The first 100 days demonstrates how Welsh Labour is delivering real investment, real jobs, real support for communities – not promises and pledges but delivery.

“I am so proud of everything this government has already delivered since I became First Minister and I’m optimistic about what we can achieve as we move forward.”