Firstly, i’d like to thank everyone who took part in the survey on interest from the Senedd - it’s always great to see the passion that the community has for meta devolution.

That being said the quad’s decision is that we will not be implementing a Welsh Assembly at this stage - for a few reasons.

Firstly, we do not believe that the number of interested people (once you subtract the rough amount who say they would participate but actually wouldn’t) is not sufficient to guarantee that a 9 or 11 seat assembly would not only survive, but thrive.

Secondly, we believe that the lack of knowledge of what could broadly be defined as ‘Welsh matters’, such as confusing the meta and legislative process, ignorance of the role of the Llywydd and the unviability of a cmhoc style bilingual spreadsheet means that (outside of Plaid Cymru) there isn’t a distinctive Welsh polity in the community. This means that there is a particular danger of a Senedd not significantly differing from mhoc and therefore adding anything to the community. Northern Ireland and Scotland’s viable nationalist movements mean that they do not have similar risks.

Finally, it’s no secret that Stormont is going some activity issues at the moment, making expansion a more perilous business. It’s been decided that shoring up Stormont should be the main priority of the devolved speakership - or we could see two devolved simulations fail, something none of us want to see.

It should however be noted that this is not the death knell for the Senedd, a couple more active members and a properly functioning Stormont will see us reconsider this decision, likely in the New Year.

~ The Quad