Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The wrong button
In the chamber today First Minister, Rhodri Morgan confessed that he pressed the wrong button, when he voted for my proposal to give the Assembly more powers to determine voting arrangements for local councils in Wales. He also said that Education Minister, Jane Hutt had done the same thing.
Mr Morgan told AMs: “I didn’t intend to vote for the measure (sic). I had a computer malfunction. I apologise, I voted the wrong way.” The only malfunction the First Minister had last week was in the use of his fingers. To blame his error on a computer is pretty lame even by his standards.
However, Rhodri Morgan’s claim that he intended to vote against the LCO has wider implications. It means that every Labour AM intended to vote en bloc to reject more powers. What other institution in the world votes not to take powers available to it?
It seems that Labour have abandoned devolution at the exact point we should be going further and faster to make a positive difference to life in Wales. They seem to believe that uniquely, the people of Wales cannot be trusted to decide how to elect their own councils.
If Labour AMs intend to argue that Wales should have more powers in a future referendum, rejecting more powers as the opportunity arises seems a funny way of going about it
Mr Morgan told AMs: “I didn’t intend to vote for the measure (sic). I had a computer malfunction. I apologise, I voted the wrong way.” The only malfunction the First Minister had last week was in the use of his fingers. To blame his error on a computer is pretty lame even by his standards.
However, Rhodri Morgan’s claim that he intended to vote against the LCO has wider implications. It means that every Labour AM intended to vote en bloc to reject more powers. What other institution in the world votes not to take powers available to it?
It seems that Labour have abandoned devolution at the exact point we should be going further and faster to make a positive difference to life in Wales. They seem to believe that uniquely, the people of Wales cannot be trusted to decide how to elect their own councils.
If Labour AMs intend to argue that Wales should have more powers in a future referendum, rejecting more powers as the opportunity arises seems a funny way of going about it
Comments:
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Peter - please try and get a grip on this. Welsh Labour made a manifesto committment to oppose PR. Your proposal would have meant voting against their own manifesto, prodcued by their own Party members and rattified by their policy process. Why would they do that?
# posted by 
: 4:13 PM
: 4:13 PM
I am sorry Luke but that is absolutely not the case. My proposal would have brought the powers to the Assembly to determine this issue in the future. What Labour voted against was being able to determine Welsh matters in Wales. There was no vote on PR in local government last week.
Exactly, Labour could have used the LCO to gerrymander local government to their heart's content. Now they will have to go to Westminster if they want to fulfill their manifesto committment to prop up arrogant, incompetent council leaders in the Valleys.
# posted by : 10:22 AM
: 10:22 AM
Seem to remember that Dr Gibbons (new Labour new World Monkey) pressed the wrong button.
Thank F**k Wales hasn't got it's own nuclear deterrent
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Thank F**k Wales hasn't got it's own nuclear deterrent
# posted by : 7:39 PM
: 7:39 PM<< Home
