The United Kingdom with a population of 60,776, 238 manages to run itself with a total of 646 MPs, that’s one MP for roughly every 94,000 people. With it being that size, it is also easier to ensure legislation is scrutinised, the government is held to account and most importantly, of course, to make sure the citizens’ interests are taken care of.
Wales has a population of 2903085. It has 60 AMs; that’s one AM for every 48384 citizens; enough surely to carry out whatever work the Welsh Assembly is supposed to carry out?
Apparently not.
The National Assembly cannot fulfil its responsibilities with only 60 AMs, politicians warned yesterday.There are not enough AMs to scrutinise legislation, hold the Labour-Plaid government to account and represent constituents, concerned AMs of all parties said.
I can see the problem. You get more legislative powers switched over to the Assembly, then the legislative bureaucracy is bound to increase. And bureaucracy usually doesn’t equate to more democracy.
The solution? How about...less legislative powers for the Welsh Assembly?
How about more powers being kept or reverted back to Westminster, where there are over 640 MPs who can carry out this checking function?
The MPs or AMs, if you really must keep the Assembly, then can go back to fully concentrating on representing their constituents' interests.
And as for a supposed Unionist saying this:
Welsh Conservative Jonathan Morgan believes that as the Assembly’s powers grow there will be an “emerging consensus” that more AMs are needed. He argues that Wales no longer requires 40 Westminster MPs but needs more talent in Cardiff Bay.
Well.....
2 comments:
O'Neill. Can I clarify, do you wish to see devolution checked or rolled back altogether? If the latter option is your preference, do you see this as a realistic proposition?
Instinctively I would have preferred no devolution at all, but I'm bound to say that it will be with us in the forseeable future. The priority IMO is checking further devolution of powers from Westminster.
Ideally, I'd want devolution rolled back entirely; at the minute though, no, it's not a realistic proposition. At the minute, all I can do is highlight the various absurdies of the devolved parliaments and there's no shortage of stories to blog on in that regard!!
Once I get a few hours (days!), I'll write how I think a properly accountable and democratic government system could work from Westminster.
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