Government of Wales Bill

I too shall speak in favour of the amendment in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas), and I shall take up a couple of the points made by my right hon. Friend the Member for Torfaen (Mr. Murphy) about the confusion in the current system. The amendment is sensible because, as we are asking for a referendum about more powers, and the Assembly creating Acts, it is only right and proper that we should consider how Members are elected to carry out that new responsibility, and also how many Members are needed to conduct proper scrutiny of the additional responsibilities and powers that will be bestowed if the referendum supports them. One concern about the amendment is that it curtails the consultation to 120 days. That is a little ambitious. However, if the Assembly and the two Houses of Parliament allow additional powers, I presume that the debate will already have begun, and people will be finding out how the scrutiny works, and whether additional Members are needed. In my opinion, additional powers and responsibilities will mean additional Members. The part of the Bill that will come into force is about enhanced powers, and I believe that there is flexibility within the current arrangements for the National Assembly to deal with those powers. However, for full primary legislation we need to examine the number of Assembly Members who will undertake that work, so I am grateful that the amendment was tabled. The present electoral system is flawed and confusing to members of the public. In 1999 I was a candidate in the Ynys Môn constituency. I was the runner-up, I have no complaint about the fact that the people voted for their candidate. That time was the high-water mark for nationalism in Wales, and the nationalists had a runaway success; ever since then they have been in continuous decline, and I think that that will go on into the next Assembly elections. The winner won, and the first-past-the-post system clearly identified who the people of Ynys Môn wanted as their Assembly Member. I was the runner-up, yet through the list system the Conservative, who came third, was elected as an Assembly Member. The runner-up was out of the game, but the candidate who came third was elected. If that is not confusing for people, I do not know what is.