Petitions

Today the petitions committee sits for the third time. At 11 today I will be taking part in an interview with a Tory activist who believes that the petitions committee will take up too much of our time as Assembly Members, and that the local issues raised should be done so on a Council level. Unsurprisingly, I totally disagree. The National Assembly should addrees local issues in all that it does. That is how AM's operate- finding local issues, and raising them on a National level. The idea of the petitions committee allows people to put forward their ideas in an accessible way, and to raise the profile of their individual issues. Of course, we're learning how the process can be developed, but in typical fashion, some Tory activists are questioning the purpose of this new committee.

We will be visiting the Scottish Parliament to see how their petitions committee works in a few weeks time( if there isn't an election, of course) and I'm sure we can develop the workings of our committee in line with best practise from Scotland. We are yet to develop a website and look in to the idea of texting in petitions, but for fear of appearing too big headed for the Wales on Sunday journo's who read my blog, I won't comment until we see the finished product from the Llywydd's office! Of course, any new ideas that you have are greatly appreciated.....

I am also doing an interview for AM PM today on image in politics. Personally, I don't think that how a person looks should have an influence on their political performance, but unfortunately it does in this day and age. People make their minds up about you in a glance, so image is vital. It's not the only aspect you have to get right, but it does help. I notice as a young woman that it's much more of a challenge to get people to take you seriously at face value. On the other end of the spectrum, Menzies Campbell gets a raw deal for being an older politician, which is equally as unfair. Until discrimination is a thing of the past, these judgements will continue unfortunately.

I'll let you know how the interveiws go, and the petitions committee for that matter. There is a petition from my old school about retaining the name Ysgol Rhydfelen for the school as opposed to Gartholwg, which I will be saying that I support today.