So Dafydd Wigley has put his name forward for the House of Lords. No surprises there then. I sincerely hope that whoever is 'elected' to the House of Lords, or the 'Second Chamber' as we have been told to call it, will represent the people of Wales to the best of their abilities, especially with regards to reforming the Second Chamber, and to pushing forward with the legislation process. I understand that Pauline Jarman has not put her name forward. It will be a contest then for Janet Davies and Rhian Medi on the women's front then, I guess.
The vote for the House of Lords will take place at the end of the month- on the same day as the discussion on gender balance within the party. It will be a fiery discussion probably, but I hope that the discussion can remain good-natured and policy driven. John Dixon- the Chair of Plaid conducted a review on gender balance to present to the National Executive, with input from party members. I am not quite sure what the outcome is at the moment, or what the motion will look like finally.
I have to say that I still see the need for a form of gender balance in the party, and in Welsh politics as a whole. I totally understand the argument that political parties must 'encourage' more women to stand, and to be much more pro-active in organising training sessions for women and for other minorities so they can find the confidence to put their names forward for selection. Nevertheless, I sincerely believe that gender balance is necessary to a certain degree in order to ensure that we have a balanced team of representatives within Plaid Cymru. I don't need to list the statistics, firmly backed up by the campaign group Fawcett to tell you why this action is still needed, but I am sure that I will need to later on in the comment section of this post!
I will await with interest as to what decision our National Council will make. The blogger Normal Mouth may be pleased to know that following Council's decision, I may be inclined to say that Plaid are ever so slightly off the 'progressive' radar....Who knows?
8 comments:
Your Chief Executive Gwenllian Lansdown should be at the highest levels (i mean in public sense not party organisation) for Plaid. She has more ability than almost all the AMs combined and I say this as a Labour supporter.
I agree about Gwenllian - she'll definitely be at the top in future, although I think she's happy being chief executive for now, and using her ability for getting Plaid ready for future challenges.
Well, I'm hoping to see Dafydd Wigley, Eurfyl ap Gwilym and Meinir Owen at the Second Chamber. I think you forgot Meinir from your list of women Bethan. She's the current Chair of Gwynedd Council, and a very able candidate - intelligent, considerate and calm, as well as a lovely person - and probably a bit underrated as she doesn't go around grabbing headlines.
Eurfyl ap Gwilym is also very underrated. Most people see him in the middle pages of the Western Mail most weeks, discussing some economic problem or other, but he's forgotten otherwise. In fact, he is the brilliant brain behind many of the bright, innovative approaches Plaid have had to economic problems, and has directed manifestos and policy for years.
The Second Chamber has no validity in a democracy, but my feeling is that we need talented people there - if Plaid had said no, that would not mean that other parties would stop using it, and now that we are in government, we can't overlook the institution.
On gender balance, I agree to some extent, but we need to approach the question of representation of society more widely? Disability, ethnic minority... What does representation mean?
I may be inclined to say that Plaid are ever so slightly off the 'progressive' radar....Who knows?
Perhaps so, but you are right to continue to push for mechanisms to ensure gender balance. Training, encouragement and so on are important, but should go alongside such mechanisms. I get concerned when I detect the parties going cool on gender balance - as if the job has been done.
I'll third that [Gwenllian Lansdown], a very talented individual. It's a shame that she didn't quite make it in one respect last year. We have to blame Plaid selection for that.
miss wagstaff- I don't think you can blame Plaid selection for Gwenllian. She stood in South Central and tried her very best. She did come third on the list, but is still very young, and has plenty of opportunity to stand again in the future. Her experience as Chief Exec will be vital.
Normal Mouth, I am glad that we agree on this issue!
Rhydian- Sorry, I did not know until last night about Meinir. Eurfyl I know to be a strong candidate already.
"but is still very young"
You old pro, you! ;)
hmmm. I wasnt saying it in that manner wagstaff! It does read as such. But I've got wrinkles already from being an AM! Its not for the faint hearted!
Mechanisms for gender balance are appropriate where well qualified women candidates lose to less qualified male candidates.
There is no evidence of this happening in Plaid.
The problem is a shortage of women candidates. Our exisiting mechanism sends out a message that women cannot get selected other than through a "mechanism" so women supporters outside the party membership do not join.
Furthermore the existing mechanism is deeply unpopular with many women members and has led to some refusing to put themselves forward as candidates. I can think of two very able women councillors who would have made superb Ams but who refuse to be selected on this basis. The mechanism has actually been counter productive.
Unless of course you are from a particular faction of the party in which case it has been remarkably successful in getting your members selected.
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