Breakfast Time in The Bay

The Electoral Commission will be launching its statutory report on the referendum on the law-making powers of the National Assembly for Wales at 8:00am on Wednesday 13 July 2011 in Conference Room 24 in Tŷ Hywel, the National Assembly for Wales.

The event, which is sponsored by the Deputy Presiding Officer, David Melding AM, will be an opportunity for the Chief Counting Officer, Jenny Watson, to outline the Commission’s main findings about what they learnt in the process of running the referendum.

Breakfast will be provided!

As one of those registered to campaign in the referendum I have been invited to the do! Great! Thanks for the invitation!

I would love to meet the Electoral Commissioners to discuss how successful (or not) the Commission was in running the referendum. It is clear from my blogs and my campaign during the referendum that I was unhappy with the way that the referendum was run, so an opportunity to voice those concerns with the Commissioners would be very welcome.

However the practical problems of getting to Cardiff from Llandudno for a breakfast meeting at eight o'clock in the morning, with all respect, is so absurd as to make such a meeting part of the problem.

Discussing the way in which the referendum was run over bacon eggs and lava bread first thing in the morning at a venue that it is impossible for all but the few "within the bubble" to attend shows just how out of touch with needs of ordinary campaigners for Welsh Democracy the Electoral Commission is!

The time and place is worse than just Cardiff Centric, having looked at the timetables, even if I decided to go down to Cardiff the day before and spend the night with my sister in St Mellons, a few miles away from the Bay, it would still be difficult for me to get to Tŷ Hywel for 8am by public transport.

If the Electoral Commission is really interested in engaging with all stakeholders in the referendum process I call on it to cancel this totally ridiculous breakfast meeting and to arrange a meeting at a sensible time in a sensible place that would give access to the many rather than the select few!