Why The Welsh Assembly Matters

Why the Welsh Assembly is Still Important

The Welsh Assembly. Shiny building in Cardiff. Can't miss it. Big slate steps and huge glass walls, sitting in front of Cardiff Bay? Well, kind of. The Sennedd building is a major feature in the landscape of Cardiff but the organisation itself is a little bit invisible. Even when elections for the Assembly roll around the national media pays scant attention, too busy watching Mr Johnson schmooze around London or Alex Salmond rouse the Scots. Even the electorate is less than enthused, with a piddly 4 in 10 bothering to vote. You would be forgiven for asking 'whats the point?' What relevance do the 60 worthies who sit in the Assembly really have on the lives of the Welsh people? 

Firstly its about representation, representation, representation. It's about representing the overwhelming preference in Wales for a Labour government over a Tory one. At the last Assembly election Labour took 43.5% of the voted versus the Tories' 25%. No one wants a reversion to the days when the Celtic nations struggled to get their voices heard at the table, like when Thatcher decided with the tact of a hyperactive rhino to use Scotland as the guinea pig for the Poll Tax and people wonder why there're more Giant Pandas in Scotland than Scottish Tory MPs). There's always been a suspicion that the Tories are synonymous with England and unrepresentative of Wales, so the Assembly is even more important now there is once again a Conservative government.  

Admittedly the "Wales doesn't like the Tories Card" can be over played. They are now the second largest party in Wales (although that says more about the state of Plaid and the Liberals than anything else). 

But the principle that stuff shouldn't happen in Wales without the Welsh getting a fairly large say in the matter still stands. For example, there have been occasions when Welsh MPs have opposed things almost unanimously and yet have still gone through. Ask any of the older locals about Capel Ceyln for starters! Proper representation for national sentiment is great, but representation is not going to make a lot of difference on its own. For example, having a Grand Committee of Welsh MPs at Westminister never achieved much apart from producing some very grumpy meetings. 

Much more important is the fact that the Welsh Assembly is doing stuff. It might seem an obvious point to make, but when the Assembly was introduced a lot of people were worried that it wouldn't make much difference to anything. But now, there's always at least one point in a week when you're walking to the till with a basket full of wholesome student food (mostly microwaveable), when you realise your bag's at home filling a bin or has been cut up by a drunken flat mate. So now, you are going to have to pay 5p courtesy of Carwyn and Co in the Assembly. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. From the education minister saying "Nac Ydw" to the idea of Academies in Wales, being the first to ban smoking in pubs so you could go for a pint without slicing 4 years off your life expectancy (now it's only the alcohol which will kill you), to opposing Foundation Hospitals and the mess of a bill the Conservatives call "health reform". 

One of the things that people often lay at the door is it only really opposes. It's against you having a free plastic bag, it's against you having a fag in the Slug and Lettuce or against Virgin running your healthcare. But the Welsh Assembly done a lot of empowerment as well. Working towards a Living Wage for Wales, 40000 new apprenticeships, 500 extra PCSOs... you get the idea! 

Sometimes, the Assembly can seem to be a rather expensive talking shop, an ego trip for Welsh Nationalists. But when you get down to it, life in Wales is very different than it would have been had a few people woken up in a different mood on 18th September 1997. In most surveys, it now appears to enjoy the support of the Welsh people. 

So why the low turn-out? This can probably be laid at the door of the fact the national media seem to give the Tiddlywinks World Championship more coverage but also the "hang the lot of 'em" attitude that prevails against politics, which you can find at all levels. But perhaps, just perhaps, the Assembly with its more collegiate manner and local roots embodies a new kind of politics. Perhaps.

It's all a little bit incredible when you consider that all this was built from the slenderest of majorities and on the back of a 30% swing. If 1 in 100 of the people who didn't vote had turned out and voted "No", all of this would just be a Nationalist pipe dream. A lesson, I suppose, on the importance of voting and how stubborn campaigning can really make a difference.