Miserable old fart talking about Peter Black being presiding officer, but MOF will be in opposition as well so why does not he be pres officer?
I think that Anonymous' idea is brilliant – I would love to do the job and I'm sure that I would be the best Llywydd ever; but there is one little problem. Under present arrangements the Llywydd has to be an AM, this unfortunate little detail rules me out. Damn it!
Glyn Beddau has an interesting response to the nonny's comment:
But the idea of you becoming Llywydd is not without merit. It may be a good idea that two Presiding officers are appointed via a ballot of AMs from respected members of the Public.. They would not be allowed to vote but would have authority in the chamber. It would mean that the elected members can get on serving their constituents who voted for the Party rather than them anyway.
I'm not sure if Glyn's comment is tongue in cheek or not, but it does have some merit.
Since the Assembly's creation the people of Meirionnydd have voted Plaid Cymru with a fair amount of consistency, but they have not had a Plaid AM, they have had an independent / neutral AM – which is not what they voted for. The constituents have not had an AM who can stand up in the Senedd to plead their cause or to vote on the issues that are important to them - and that's not fair!
OK the Westminster parliament has selected one of its own to be speaker for the past 700 years – but does Wales have to slavishly follow that model?
There must be a better way of selecting a Llywydd than disenfranchising the electorate of a working AM!
(Any AM's who agree with anon that I would be a good external appointment are welcome to beg me to take up the post via the e-mail link on the top left of the blog. I expect a minimum of 40 by this time tommorrow!)
... would you guarantee freedom of speech in the Assembly, would you let the debates go on into the night because democracy demands it or would you be another 9 to 5 presiding officer.
ReplyDeleteI still think that if you would be a reasonable PO or DPO as long as you do not forget to get one of your seegar's out!
ReplyDeleteIn a way, what you are suggesting is a position similar to that of the legal officers in the Scottish Parliament. I like it.
ReplyDeleteNow how about all those people disenfranchised by their AMs taking ministerial jobs? We could even call it the separation of powers...
Why should just the ams get a vote? Why shouldn't there be a proper election for llywydd?
ReplyDelete