WORDS EXPRESSED by politicians can sometimes mean rather more than they mean on the surface, writes Clive Betts from the Assembly press gallery.
For instance – “general election”. We all know that one has to be held by next June.
But that is for the parliament which meets in London.
But another election has to be held by the following June – although May is the expected date. That is the poll for the Cardiff Assembly.
When the first poll was held in 1999, the powers that decided how that poll should be conducted put it out that the last May vote of the last century should by described as the “Welsh general election”.
And who was the power that took that decision ? As it was no doubt taken a long time in advance of the vote, the decision was surely taken by the furthest-thinking politician from Wales who has had a finger in a governmental pie for many decades, if not for almost a century.
In other words, Ron Davies, at the time Secretary of State for Wales and AM for Caerffili.
His idea was that the new Assembly was in no way a jumped-up county council, as it was termed by many who had voted No in the preceding referendum. As well as by some very senior figures at the Western Mail – or should we go back to calling it, Llais y Sais ?
The election was in its own way as important as the other election at which the Welsh attended at the polling booths for each four years or so, the general election for Westminster. Therefore, the May 1999 event was the general election for Wales.
But as the new century has dragged along, the term the term has fallen into disuse. I don’t think I ever heard it used in either 2003 or 2007. And neither have I heard it with reference to 2011.
Until today. Tory leader Nick Bourne was arguing about the date on which a referendum should be held to decide whether extra power should be given to the Welsh Assembly.
Mr Bourne was emphasising the position which his party had taken.
The referendum “should not be held on the date of our general election”, said the leader of the Tory group.
So, the phrase that Plaid Cymru, the Labour Party and the Lib Dems have been ignoring ever since 1999 has at last returned from the purgatory to which it was consigned.
Congratulations Nick.
Now, when Ron put forward the phrase, he had the backing of the entire governmental publicity machine to ensure it remained in peoples’ minds. Nick hasn’t – yet – got that far in his political progress.
So, it’s up to the leaders of the other three parties of their own volition to start using the term, as well. Of course, if Carwyn and Ieuan, First Minister and deputy, cotton on, they will be able to prevail upon the governmental publicity machine to use it as well.
And then we’ll all be happy that Wales is no longer being treated as second rate.
I might be wrong, but I thought that it was only in GOWA 2006 that the term was officially used??
If I remember correctly, the Lib Dem 07 manifesto was subtitled “Manifesto for the Welsh General Election”.
Self-aggrandising nonsense. Call it the Assembly election, which is what it is. There’s only one general election.
Sorry, Gareth, but we are entering into a federal system of government, in which different fields of government are dealt with by different levels of governance – as happens in better-run parts of the world, such as Germany, the United States, Australia, Canada and so many other places.
The sort of policies which really concern us from day to day – such as education, planning and health – are under Welsh control. As you presumably want these Welsh-run issues to be given proper prominence in peoples’ minds, we should give the elections which decide the future their proper name. The Welsh general election !