WRITTEN RESPONSES TO RICHARD COMMISSION
CONSULTATION
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Letter received from The Rt Hon Alan Williams MP
dated 21 July 2003
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| Dear Ivor |
| May I put the following points to your
Committee ? |
| In Scotland, the constitutional costs of
having Primary Legislative powers has been that their
number of Westminster MPs is proposed to be cut from 72
to 59. If the same proportion applied in Wales, the number
of MPs would be cut by 6 or 7, cutting "our representation
in Parliament from 40 to 33. |
| Perhaps you would calculate how
many extra Assembly Members would be needed to carry out
a full legislative programme. I suggest it would be many
more than 7. |
| It would also mean that the pattern
of A.M. representations would need to be changed. |
| With only 33 constituencies, only 33 AMs
would be elected by First Past The Post -reducing not
increasing, the number of AMs. But the Assembly already
complains about the stress suffered by its existing members.
One possibility might be to move to two member constituencies
- but from your own recollections of being an MP, you
know the tensions that would create. |
| Alternatively there might be
an increase in the number elected through the List of
Regional AMs. But that already is a perversion of democracy
-16,000 votes elected one Conservative AM, 36,000 elected
one Liberal Democrat AM, 24,000 elected one Plaid AM,
but 310,000 votes did not earn a single extra Labour AM. |
| To elect an even higher proportion
by this route would be to create a democratic disparity
that would lead to even more voters not bothering to vote. |
| I would suggest: |
| 1: There should
be no power of Primary Legislation for the Assembly; |
| 2: The voting system
is such an abuse that it has to be revised. |
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| Yours sincerely |
Alan Williams |
The Rt Hon the Lord Richard
Chairman, The Richard Commission
Caradog House
1-6 St Andrews Place
Cardiff CF10 3BE |
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