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Edition #1 - 13 July 2020

#Justice4Wales

The Senedd has been up and running for just over a week now since the Programme for Government from the current Government has been debated, but there has been one overlaying theme this week in Wales and that is the justice referendum.

This all started when Labour, the DRF and the LPUK brought the Wales Justice and Policing Referendum Bill to the House of Commons. The bill itself caused some problems for the newly formed Government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

Later on, the problems flew over to Wales as well, causing the downfall of the Government between the Conservatives and the LPUK. But this was just the start of the conversation in Wales and there were many new chapters waiting to be written.

Eventually, this led everything to this first week in the Senedd. A new Government has formed between Labour, Plaid Cymru and Plaid Pobl, a newcomer to Welsh politics. The goal of this new Government is to ensure that the justice and policing referendum will continue as planned.

cthulhuiscool2 (Leader LPC) vs RhysGwenythIV (Leader Welsh Conservatives)

Another Motion

The newest motion on the justice referendum, however, has caused some more debate, especially between the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Libertarian Party Cymru (LPC). Where the Leader of the Welsh Conservatives showed that the Welsh Conservatives follow the national party in their support for a higher threshold.

The referendum, which was the reason for this motion, is a reserved matter, meaning it is up to Westminster to set the rules and make the legislation for this referendum and that it’s not up to the Senedd. A representative of the LPC said that ‘it’s clearly a reserved matter, to suggest that the elected body of the Welsh people cannot discuss aspects of it … is fallacious.’

The Conservatives disagree, they see this as something that’s completely up to the Westminster Parliament because it’s a reserved matter. So, Westminster has to decide what this turnout threshold should be and not up to the Senedd. They, therefore, explain that this motion will not change their view on the turnout threshold in Westminster.

The First Minister agrees with the notion that the Senedd should be able to debate this subject, even though the referendum is reserved. He also indicated that he will whip his MSs in favour of this motion because Labour supports the principle of this motion.

If we look at how this discussion about turnouts started, it began with an amendment from the LPUK Lord, The Baron Grantham. The LPC representative told us that they don’t whip their Lords and that their views are not the same as the rest of the party.

The Conservative Party says that they support the notion of not whipping their Lords, but they do see that a decision made on the devolution settlement requires a higher turnout and backing figures.

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A New Relationship

The referendum causes a divide between the two natural allies, the LPC and the Welsh Conservatives, who have served together in Government under Vitiating and model-willem. The LPUK are clear on the question if this changes something in the relationship between both parties, ‘I try not to make decisions to cooperate, as a make or break on any single policy issue.’

When confronted with this issue, the Press Officer of the Conservative Party did acknowledge that this will change the dynamic and relationship with the Libertarians. They didn’t take it lightly that the LPUK ‘rejected their own compromise in favour of voting for the Labour Party’. ‘It is not something the Conservative Party will forget when we need to work together in future’.