Monday, July 02, 2007
Who will be Deputy?
Seneddwr has already beaten me to the punch in writing about who will be filling the roles of Presiding Officer and Deputy Presiding Officer if the Plaid-Labour Coalition is approved at the weekend. I had intended to wait for the outcome of the two conferences before posting but as the discussion has started then I may as well join in.
It seems to me that there are three options available to the Assembly once the Plaid-Labour Government get their feet under the desk. However, what the timescale is to resolve this matter is difficult to predict. There will only be two Plenary Sessions left before the summer recess. It may well be that a decision will be taken to delay the moment until September though that in itself would be deeply unsatisfactory.
The first option is to change the Standing Orders. As they presently stand the rules state that the PO and the DPO must come from either side of the political divide. Neither has a vote. Plaid and Labour combined have the necessary two thirds majority to carry out a change so as to allow both Dafydd Elis Thomas and Rosemary Butler to stay in post, but whether they would be wise to use this option so early in their government is debatable.
My view is that changing standing orders will provoke an almighty row about the abuse of power. It would also be difficult to justify when the Assembly only adopted them a few weeks ago and has not had an opportunity to test them yet.
The other two options depend on where the vacancy arises, but both lead to the same outcome in my view, a Conservative DPO. Ieuan Wyn Jones has the option to put Dafydd Elis Thomas into the cabinet. If that were to happen then I believe that Rosemary Butler would succeed him as PO leaving a vacancy as her deputy.
Alternatively, the Government would be forced to move Rosemary Butler so as to meet the requirements of Standing Orders. I think it is unlikely that the PO could be removed so easily and I do not believe that any side would want that to happen. This would again create a vacancy for a new DPO.
Because there is a requirement for a member of the opposition to be appointed Deputy Presiding Officer in these circumstances then it is likely that the post would be filled by a member of the Conservative Group. I cannot see my own group being very keen on losing a member to such a neutral non-voting post in the position in which we find ourselves. I believe therefore that the choice will be between William Graham and David Melding.
There is only one caveat to this and that is that many members take the view that there should be a gender balance between the two posts, whilst others think that at least one of the two postholders should be Welsh speaking. It may be possible to square one of these circles but not both of them at once. We shall see. After all Plaid and Labour have not yet endorsed the coalition deal.
It seems to me that there are three options available to the Assembly once the Plaid-Labour Government get their feet under the desk. However, what the timescale is to resolve this matter is difficult to predict. There will only be two Plenary Sessions left before the summer recess. It may well be that a decision will be taken to delay the moment until September though that in itself would be deeply unsatisfactory.
The first option is to change the Standing Orders. As they presently stand the rules state that the PO and the DPO must come from either side of the political divide. Neither has a vote. Plaid and Labour combined have the necessary two thirds majority to carry out a change so as to allow both Dafydd Elis Thomas and Rosemary Butler to stay in post, but whether they would be wise to use this option so early in their government is debatable.
My view is that changing standing orders will provoke an almighty row about the abuse of power. It would also be difficult to justify when the Assembly only adopted them a few weeks ago and has not had an opportunity to test them yet.
The other two options depend on where the vacancy arises, but both lead to the same outcome in my view, a Conservative DPO. Ieuan Wyn Jones has the option to put Dafydd Elis Thomas into the cabinet. If that were to happen then I believe that Rosemary Butler would succeed him as PO leaving a vacancy as her deputy.
Alternatively, the Government would be forced to move Rosemary Butler so as to meet the requirements of Standing Orders. I think it is unlikely that the PO could be removed so easily and I do not believe that any side would want that to happen. This would again create a vacancy for a new DPO.
Because there is a requirement for a member of the opposition to be appointed Deputy Presiding Officer in these circumstances then it is likely that the post would be filled by a member of the Conservative Group. I cannot see my own group being very keen on losing a member to such a neutral non-voting post in the position in which we find ourselves. I believe therefore that the choice will be between William Graham and David Melding.
There is only one caveat to this and that is that many members take the view that there should be a gender balance between the two posts, whilst others think that at least one of the two postholders should be Welsh speaking. It may be possible to square one of these circles but not both of them at once. We shall see. After all Plaid and Labour have not yet endorsed the coalition deal.
Comments:
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Peter - I think that most people both inside the Assembly bubble and in the 'real world' would like to see Dafydd El retain a prominent post, and as Ieuan won’t want him outshining him in the cabinet, PO it must be. I have no axe to grind with Rose Butler, but suspending Standing Orders to keep her in a job seems to me to be an outrageous abuse of power. I really do hope that Rhodri and Ieuan will not be hubristic enough to try it and that, if they do, the Libs and Tories will do all they can to stop it. For what it's worth, I don’t think they will and - more importantly - I cannot see a statesman like Dafydd El letting it happen.
The Government of Wales Act says that to trigger a referendum the number of Assembly Members voting in favour of it must be "not less than two-thirds of the total number of Assembly seats" (NB "seats"). The PO and DPO haven't got a vote. If both Dafydd El and Rosemary stay in post, the combined votes of Plaid and Labour are 39 - that's right, not enough to trigger a referendum!
I wonder if they realise?
I wonder if they realise?
# posted by 
: 8:19 PM
: 8:19 PM
Most probably not but then the Welsh Lib Dems would most probably vote in favour of a referendum anyway.
...and only the person presiding is unable to vote, unless it's the casting vote, which wouldn't matter in this case
Apologies Peter, I was under the impression that the DPO could vote as long as they weren't chairing Plenary at the time. I should memorise the new Standing Orders in my spare time.
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