A Tory AM who has championed the cause of more powers for the National Assembly has failed to be selected as a candidate for his home constituency in next year’s election.Melding (as I've detailed here) is one of the very few Conservative elected representatives who is also a federalist. Question is did he lose the nomination because of that stance, because he favours more powers for the Welsh Assembly or merely because "they wanted someone new"? If I were (more of a;)) betting man, my money would be on those first two factors.
David Melding, who has been a regional list AM for South Wales Central since the Assembly’s inception, is seen as the intellectual heavyweight in the Assembly’s Conservative group.
But he was beaten by Dr Angela Jones-Evans in a selection for the highly marginal Vale of Glamorgan seat.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Arch-Devolutionist Conservative fails in selection bid.
From IC Wales:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
the problem relying on the Western Mail for news is that you don't get all the facts and besides the selection for the seat took place 2 weeks ago and Welsh bloggers posted on at the time. Still its good to see the Western Mail are on the ball.
But back to the selection Angela Jones Evans was selected because she outscored David Melding during the selection process and because she almost beat Labour in one of its heartlands after she ran a fantastic campaign as a Tory Candidate in the General Election.
David Melding losing out in the Vale has nothing to do with the fact he supports further powers or is a federalist. He was beaten by a better candidate but that doesn't make a very interesting story does it.
David might not even get elected next time around if he doesn't secure the top spot on one of the Regional Lists for the Tories due the the shift in voting intentions since the General Election and the way AM's are elected.
The problem with your story is that Dr Jones-Evans and her husband Prof Dylan Jones-Evans are also amongst the most prominent supporters of Devoloution in the Conservative party.
"Still its good to see the Western Mail are on the ball."
And me you might have added!
"David Melding losing out in the Vale has nothing to do with the fact he supports further powers or is a federalist. He was beaten by a better candidate but that doesn't make a very interesting story does it."
OK I take your and Alwyn ap Huw's point on this one.
I still find Melding one of the most interesting of the devolved politicians basically because he thinks beyond the short-term and the soundbyte. I enjoyed reading his book although I disagree with his conclusion. So, the fact that he wasn't selected was interesting enough personally for me to write about and since it's me blogging on here, that's all that counts really isn't it;)
Post a Comment