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Government of Wales Bill

I am grateful to all who have participated in the debate. It is clear that there is a range of feelings in the Committee. I was particularly touched by the quotation given by my noble friend Lord Crickhowell from a very independent academic, Professor Robert Hazell, of the Constitution Unit of the London School of Economics. He referred to these proposals as,"““nasty, spiteful and seemingly driven by partisan motives””." When such a statement is made one looks to see what lies behind it. Jonathan Bradbury and Meg Russell gave evidence. They said:"““Any mechanism that seeks to overcome problems generally experienced only by Labour Assembly Members, will also be open to being seen as partisan. It may be worth reminding Labour Assembly Members that whilst they may feel individual resentments at ‘unfair’ competition from list Assembly Members, the current electoral arrangements were created with their party’s overall aim to remain the largest party””." That is the crux of the issue. The system was set up by the Labour Government in the 1998 Act. They now have to change it in order to protect their own constituency members because they have no regional list members.