Puppet State

As most people are probably aware there is a by-election taking place on Ynys Môn as a result of Ieuan Wyn Jones stepping down as AM for the island. I saw people on twitter suggesting that Labour were going to throw £100,000 in order to try and buy win the election and thus take a majority in the Senedd. So in the interest of fairness I decided to ask the Labour candidate himself.

The original tweet

He never replied. But don't look down on Tal for not replying because I also tweeted the Plaid candidate Rhun to ask him about his campaign funding. He didn't reply either.

The original tweet

Admittedly I did realise half way through what a foolish question that would be. I'm sure that Plaid Cymru do receive some funding from outside Wales but since they don't have an English based 'UK' branch of the party then that's not the same thing. If London Labour are throwing vast sums of money at elections in Wales in order to try and secure control of Wales then that (at best) makes Wales a puppet state. At worst it reduces the 'National Assembly of Wales' to a 'regional assembly of England'.

So I submitted an e-petition to the Senedd.

Welsh mony for Welsh elections

We call upon the National Assembly for Wales to urge the Welsh Government to impose a ban on foreign funding for Wales only elections.
If such a ban cannot be created then we urge the political parties in Wales to sign an agreement stating that only money from supporters in Wales will be used for Welsh Assembly Election campaigns.

Currently political parties are allowed to be funded by their UK party bosses. This effectively turns Wales into a "puppet state" as it's unclear whether Welsh parties are operating for the good of the people of Wales or according to orders from their UK party leaders.

If funding was stopped from outside Wales then Welsh parties would have far less external influence and would be able to concentrate on Wales and the people of Wales.

And then a peculiar thing happened. You know those 'captcha' graphics that are really annoying and being nice I have switched them off on my blog. Well you have to complete one of those on the Senedd site. And the graphic was amazingly appropriate.

It's like the Senedd website was agreeing with me.

So I submitted it and waited for the inevitable no to come back from the petitions clerks (may their toast always land butter side up). The email arrived a few days later and as I suspected, Welsh elections are a matter reserved for Westminster. And party funding is a matter for the parties themselves.

Here is the reply.

As you know, before publishing a petition we have to check that it is admissible. The matter of party and electoral funding is the responsibility of Westminster, and outside of the Assembly’s powers. This means your petition is inadmissible. The second line of your petition, is also outside of the National Assembly’s powers, as it relates to how political parties operate, and would be a matter to take up directly with individual parties.

In terms of taking forward this issue, you could petition the UK Government directly via: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/

Regards

So there we have it. The political parties that stand in Welsh elections are not answerable to the Senedd with regards to how their campaign funds are raised. They are only answerable to themselves. This means that so called Welsh political parties can be funded almost entirely from another country in order to seize control of Wales and run Wales in whatever manner they see fit. If that manner is to the detriment of the people of Wales and the benefit of the country funding the parties then that is the fault of the people of Wales for electing them.

Wales is (at best) either a puppet state or (at worst) the National Assembly is just a regional assembly of England.

Sounds about right. Share via twitter | facebook

I still haven't received a reply from Tal Michael, son of Alun Michael the MP who turned Cardiff South and Penarth into the worst child poverty region of Wales. Alun's wife is also a candidate for the 2015 Westminster elections.

But in order to show him no ill feeling I have designed a campaign poster for his campaign on Ynys Môn.

Print yours out today. Share via twitter | facebook

Personally I'd prefer a candidate standing who promised a referendum on seceding the island from the UK completely in order to show the rest of Wales just how prosperous we could be without the parasites of London. For when these unionist politicians tell us that we are subsidised by England, what they really mean is that they are subsidised by their English bosses. Their campaigns are subsidised by their English bosses and without that bankrolling they would have to resort to the people of Wales funding them. Which would mean they had to start working for the people of Wales instead of working for the English party bosses.

Wales, the puppet state. Share via twitter | facebook

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