Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Which party should I crash ?

I don't always agree with Huw Lewis - part of the joy of being part of a broad based socialist party - but his closing remarks are interesting

"At the moment our political culture in Wales is comparable to a teenager battling mam and dad for an extended curfew without a party to go to".

I think for the non-nationalist majority this poses some interesting questions that should not be overlooked or belittled.

3 comments:

Aran said...

Doesn't it pose interesting questions for anyone, wherever they might stand on the vague sliding scale that politicians like to refer to as nationalism?

A teenager looking for an extended curfew as a general principle (rather than a knee-jerk reaction to short-term need) sounds like a sensible strategic thinker. Good luck to her (or him).

Should we take it that Huw hopes to see the housing crisis making sure that she's still living at home into her 30s and 40s?

Martin Eaglestone said...

I see th curfew argument - I'm not sure the houisng point works.

I have always felt the evolution of devolution will happen at a pace chosen by the people, reflected through the voting patterns they choose. Waliking before running etc etc still seems good advice at this stage.

Crikey even the great Lord DET seems to be cooling the move towards more power - but perhaps the Presiding Officer chair is now very comfortable.

Aran said...

The housing point was slightly tongue-in-cheek.

The idea of walking before running has some merit - but on the other hand, it's obviously not easy for the Cynulliad to operate successfully with limited control (especially since the extent of that control is sometimes very unclear).

Public support is very important - but it would have been good to have seen the offer of equivalent powers to Scotland in 97 (I don't believe we can presume that wouldn't have been passed here). After all, running before walking doesn't seem to have hurt the Scots.

I'm not sure how much voting patterns will reveal - particularly not if you're talking about Assembly elections, now that it seems there is a clear and growing divide between Labour AMs and Labour MPs on this matter.

Like most political matters, this needs to be lead clearly (in whichever direction) by the decision-makers, with voters showing how far they're willing follow the lead.