Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Letter
I really enjoyed writing this letter to the South Wales Evening Post:
Sir, it has been refreshing in recent weeks to read in your columns discussion about the legitimacy of the Swansea Administration of Welsh Liberal Democrats, Independents and Tories in relation to the percentage of the vote they secured during the elections on June 10th.
Welsh Liberal Democrats have been arguing for some time that the outcome of elections for Councils should better reflect the way that people voted. That is why we argue so strongly against first past the post with a view to replacing it with a fair voting system.
Just to put your mind at rest my calculation, based on the highest vote secured by each party in each Council ward, indicates that the new administation actually polled 55.54% of the vote on June 10th. This contrasts quite starkly with the 35.8% of the vote secured by Labour in 1999, which gave them 65.3% of the seats. It is strange that we did not see comment in your paper on the legitimacy of the Labour administration during the period 1999-2004 given this unjust outcome.
Finally, I noted a letter from a Plaid Cymru Councillor a few days ago questioning the wisdom of standing young candidates for election. His premise was that as these young candidates matured they tended to become Tories. As the youngest Councillor on Swansea Council is, in fact, a Plaid Cymru Councillor, I think he needs to speak to his party officers straight away so that action can be taken to avoid such an evolution of views.
Yours
Councillor Peter Black AM
Welsh Liberal Democrats
Sir, it has been refreshing in recent weeks to read in your columns discussion about the legitimacy of the Swansea Administration of Welsh Liberal Democrats, Independents and Tories in relation to the percentage of the vote they secured during the elections on June 10th.
Welsh Liberal Democrats have been arguing for some time that the outcome of elections for Councils should better reflect the way that people voted. That is why we argue so strongly against first past the post with a view to replacing it with a fair voting system.
Just to put your mind at rest my calculation, based on the highest vote secured by each party in each Council ward, indicates that the new administation actually polled 55.54% of the vote on June 10th. This contrasts quite starkly with the 35.8% of the vote secured by Labour in 1999, which gave them 65.3% of the seats. It is strange that we did not see comment in your paper on the legitimacy of the Labour administration during the period 1999-2004 given this unjust outcome.
Finally, I noted a letter from a Plaid Cymru Councillor a few days ago questioning the wisdom of standing young candidates for election. His premise was that as these young candidates matured they tended to become Tories. As the youngest Councillor on Swansea Council is, in fact, a Plaid Cymru Councillor, I think he needs to speak to his party officers straight away so that action can be taken to avoid such an evolution of views.
Yours
Councillor Peter Black AM
Welsh Liberal Democrats
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Like the blog. we took over from Labour last night on Leeds City Council after 24 years in power. its a lib dem, tory, green coalition (yes really) labour disrupted the mayor making ceremony but nothing quite as bad as what you had to put up with.
Councillor David Morton 30 June 2004
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Councillor David Morton 30 June 2004
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