On today's Sunday Supplement, Huw Irranca-Davies did not claim, as some summaries have done, that the Labour/Plaid Cymru plans for the future of Welsh government would improve the quality of Senedd members. He did say that it was not a case of "jobs for the boys". But logical analysis surely shows that increasing the number of Members of the Senedd by over fifty per cent and drawing those members from closed party lists is the recipe for filling the Welsh parliament with party hacks. Indeed, I remember when Labour used to denigrate the then Members of the Welsh Assembly (AMs) who emerged from top-up regional lists because they had not been directly elected in a constituency.
It was also naughty of him to claim total "liberal" support for the Labour scheme because Liberal Democrats have consistently argued for an increase in the number of elected eyeballs to scrutinise legislation. As far as I know, the party has not had a chance to debate these particular proposals. I am not saying that all Welsh Lib Dems are against them, but informal soundings suggest that opinion in the party is divided and they need to be put to the test at the Welsh AGM. Labour has had the opportunity to have a conference to debate them (the inspiration for the Irranca-Davies interview this morning). We should to, before our leader commits herself further.
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