Government of Wales Bill

I have not said that. In Wales—I am not aware of a difference elsewhere in the United Kingdom—the relatively organic relationship between individual MEPs and the electorate has been broken, and I have noticed a decline in interest in European issues and in the quality of debate. The practical consequences of the amendment would seriously affect voters. The ballot paper would contain 16 candidates and four parties for each regional constituency, and it would be even bigger with 80 Members—if it were to include party logos, I do not know how big it would be. The alternative proposition—the creation of multi-Member constituencies containing between 90,000 and 220,000 electors—reminds me of Liberal Democrat proposals on STV in the 1980s. Those proposals would have created lots of constituencies in urban areas, making it easier for Liberal Democrats to get elected in Labour-controlled areas, but a smaller number of constituencies in rural areas, where it would have been more difficult for Labour Members to get elected. In our democratic system, constituencies are of a relatively manageable size, and if the electorate do not like an individual Member, they boot them out, which is an important feature to retain. Amendment No. 7 would confer on the Secretary of State the power by order to change the number of Assembly constituencies. It would not be sensible to give the Secretary of State such an unfettered power, which would have serious democratic consequences. For those reasons, the Government are not willing to accept the amendment. We propose to retain the existing electoral system, which we will improve. After improvement, the system will still have imperfections, but it will have far fewer imperfections than the fundamentally flawed STV system.