Status

PART 1
OFFICIAL STATUS OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE

1.  Official status of the Welsh language

(1)  The existing provision about the official status of the Welsh language in Wales includes—
       (a)  in the Government of Wales Act 2006, sections 35(1), 78(1) and (2)
       and 156(1), and paragraph 8(3) of Schedule 2;
       (b)  in the Welsh Language Act 1993, Part 2, and sections 22, 24, 25, 26
       and 27(1) 30 and (2).

(2)  This Measure makes further provision about the official status of the Welsh language in Wales, including—
       (a)  provision establishing a Welsh Language Commissioner (see Part 2);
       (b)  provision giving the Commissioner functions relating to the Welsh
       language, including functions of—
              (i) promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language and
              promoting equality between the Welsh and English languages
              (see 20 Part 2), and
              (ii) investigating interference with the freedom to use the Welsh
              language (see Part 6); and
       (c) provision for setting, and requiring compliance with, standards of conduct
       in relation to the Welsh language (see Parts 4 and 5).

(3)  This Measure does not affect the status of the English language in Wales.

PART 1
OFFICIAL STATUS OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE

1.  Official status of the Welsh language

(1)  The Welsh language has official status in Wales.

(2)  The existing provision about the official status of the Welsh language in Wales includes—
       (a)  in the Government of Wales Act 2006, sections 35(1), 78(1) and (2)
       and 156(1), and paragraph 8(3) of Schedule 2;
       (b)  in the Welsh Language Act 1993, Part 2, and sections 22, 24, 25, 26
       and 27(1) 30 and (2).

(3)  This Measure makes further provision about the official status of the Welsh language in Wales, including—
       (a)  provision establishing a Welsh Language Commissioner (see Part 2);
       (b)  provision giving the Commissioner functions relating to the Welsh
       language, including functions of—
              (i) promoting and facilitating the use of the Welsh language and
              promoting equality between the Welsh and English languages
              (see 20 Part 2), and
              (ii) investigating interference with the freedom to use the Welsh
              language (see Part 6); and
       (c) provision for setting, and requiring compliance with, standards of conduct
       in relation to the Welsh language (see Parts 4 and 5).

(4)  This Measure does not affect the status of the English language in Wales.

Wales 29

A GUEST POST BY PENDDU

The Conservatives have recently announced their plans to reduce the total number of MPs at Westminster by 10% to 585, but with equal constituency sizes in Wales, which would mean a reduction from the current 40 MPs to 29. They also announced that electorates should vary by no more that +/-3.5% and that boundaries should not have to rigidly follow county boundaries or take geographical size into account. So how might this look in Wales?

Surprisingly, I found it very easy to carve up Wales into equal sized constituencies, which seem to be both natural and logical. I did this using a spreadsheet containing all of Wales’s electoral wards and the Ordnance Survey’s excellent election map system. Then I just started at the 4 corners of Wales and worked in, taking local authority boundaries into consideration wherever practical, but largely ignoring the existing constituencies. My calculations are based on the 2005 electorates, but this could be replicated with more current data, and on this basis Wales’s electoral quota for 29 seats would be 76,745 with a permitted variation of +/- 2,700.

For example, in the South West I started in Pembrokeshire. The County has an electorate of 89,829 so it would be necessary to remove around 13,000 voters to achieve the electoral quota. This could be done by transferring the Tenby area into Carmarthenshire, but it makes more sense both geographically and linguistically to transfer the Preseli area into Ceredigion. This would then create a new seat – I have called Penfro, but this is just a working name and can be changed – with an electorate of 76,067 or 99.1% of the electoral quota.

The Preseli area with an electorate of 13,762 would then be added to Ceredigion which has an electorate of 52,514, and this would give a combined electorate of 66,276. This is still too small at only 86% of the quota, so it would be necessary to find another 10,000 voters from somewhere. I considered extending the seat north to Machynlleth, or east into Powys, but it seemed more logical to take in some of the electoral wards in north-west Carmarthenshire, along the Teifi valley. This then created a new seat – which I have called Teifi - with an electorate of 75,856 or 98.8%.

Carmarthenshire, excluding the Teifi valley wards and the existing Llanelli constituency is getting close to the electoral quota, and by adding some wards in the Burry Port area, a new constituency – Myrddin – is created with an electorate of 100.4% of the quota.

The remaining electorate in Llanelli is only 47,000 which means that it needs to add 30,000 voters from West Glamorgan, and here I propose a new seat of Lwchwr which crosses the boundaries of the preserved counties.

I continued a similar process working in from all 4 corners of Wales, and considering a number of alternative solutions, and arrived at the following proposal.

South West Wales
Penfro	Pembrokeshire, exc Preseli	99%
Teifi	Ceredigion, Preseli & Teifi Valley	99%
Myrddin	Carmarthenshire E & W, exc Teifi Valley	100%
Lwchwr	Llanelli & North Gower	97%
Swansea Gower	Swansea West & South Gower	97%
Swansea Tawe	Swansea East & City Centre	99%
Neath	Neath, Aberafan & SW Powys	97%
Margam	Port Talbot, Porthcawl & Llynfi Valley	99%
South Central Wales
Cardiff East	Cardiff South & Cathays	103%
Cardiff North	Cardiff North & Gabalfa	102%
Cardiff West	Cardiff West & Grangetown	103%
Bro Morgannwg	Vale of Glamorgan, inc Penarth exc Cowbridge	103%
Ogwr	Bridgend Town, Ogmore Valley & Cowbridge	102%
Rhondda Elai	Rhondda & Ely Valley	101%
Cynon Taf	Cynon Valley & Pontypridd Town	98%
South East Wales
Usk	Monmouthshire County & Blaenafon	102%
Newport	Newport County	103%
Cwmbran	Torfaen & North Newport	100%
East Gwent	Blaenau Gwent & East Islwyn	101%
Caerfilli	Caerphilly & West Islwyn	99%
Rhymney	Merthyr, Rhymney & NW Islwyn	98%
South Powys	Brecon, Radnor & S Montgomeryshire, exc SW Powys	99%
North Wales
Gwynedd	Merionydd & Caernarfon	99%
Menai	Ynys Mon, Bangor & Nant Conwy	101%
Conwy	Conwy County	99%
Rhuddlan	Denbighshire Coast & North Flintshire	97%
Flintshire	Flintshire, exc North Flintshire	100%
Wrecsam	Wrexham County	99%
North Powys	North Montgomery & South Denbighshire	99%

This can still be optimised further, but it took me only a few hours to arrive at this solution – so why does the electoral boundary commission take so long?

This solution could also be used for creating 58 dual STV seats for Assembly elections, although I still prefer a solution that is independent of Westminster, with variable sized multi-member seats based on local Authorities.

Cymru 29

Start with some blurb

South West Wales
Penfro	Pembrokeshire, exc Preseli	99%
Teifi	Ceredigion, Preseli & Teifi Valley	99%
Myrddin	Carmarthenshire E & W, exc Teifi Valley	100%
Lwchwr	Llanelli & North Gower	97%
Swansea Gower	Swansea West & South Gower	97%
Swansea Tawe	Swansea East & City Centre	99%
Neath	Neath, Aberafan & SW Powys	97%
Margam	Port Talbot, Porthcawl & Llynfi Valley	99%

South Central Wales
Cardiff East	Cardiff South & Cathays	103%
Cardiff North	Cardiff North & Gabalfa	102%
Cardiff West	Cardiff West & Grangetown	103%
Bro Morgannwg	Vale of Glamorgan, inc Penarth exc Cowbridge	103%
Ogwr	Bridgend Town, Ogmore Valley & Cowbridge	102%
Rhondda Elai	Rhondda & Ely Valley	101%
Cynon Taf	Cynon Valley & Pontypridd Town	98%

South West Wales
Usk	Monmouthshire County & Blaenafon	99%
Newport	Newport County	99%
Cwmbran	Torfaen & North Newport	100%
East Gwent	Blaenau Gwent & East Islwyn	97%
Caerfilli	Caerphilly & West Islwyn	97%
Rhymney	Merthyr, Rhymney & NW Islwyn	99%
South Powys	Brecon, Radnor & S Montgomeryshire, exc SW Powys	97%

South West Wales
Gwynedd	Merionydd & Caernarfon	99%
Menai	Ynys Mon, Bangor & Nant Conwy	99%
Conwy	Conwy County	100%
Rhuddlan	Denbighshire Coast & North Flintshire	97%
Flintshire	Flintshire, exc North	97%
Wrecsam	Wrexham County	99%
North Powys	North Montgomery & South Denbighshire	97%

------------

South West Wales
Penfro	Pembrokeshire, exc. Preseli	99%
Teifi	Ceredigion, Preseli & Teifi Valley	99%
Myrddin	Carmarthenshire E & W, exc. Teifi Valley	100%
Lwchwr	Llanelli & North Gower	97%
Swansea Gower	Swansea West & South Gower	97%
Swansea Tawe	Swansea East & City Centre	99%
Neath	Neath, Aberafan & SW Powys	97%
Margam	Port Talbot, Porthcawl & Llynfi Valley	99%

South West
Penfro	three	99%
Teifi	five	99%
Myrddin	five	100%
Lwchwr	five	97%
Swansea Gower	five	97%
Swansea Tawe	five	99%
Neath	five	97%
Margam	five	99%

     

South West
Penfro	Pembrokeshire exc Preseli	99%
Teifi	Ceredigion & Preseli & Teifi valley	99%
Myrddin	Carmarthenshire E&W exc. Teifi valley	100%
Lwchwr	Llanelli & north Gower	97%
Swansea Gower	Swansea West & south Gower	97%
Swansea Tawe	Swansea East & city centre	99%
Neath	Neath & Aberafan & SW Powys	97%
Margam	Port Talbot & Porthcawl & Llynfi valley	99%

Reduce and Equalize

A couple of weeks ago, the Electoral Reform Society Wales published a research paper on the implications of the Tory plan to reduce the number of Westminster constituencies to about 500 and make their size more equal, as well as how this would affect Assembly elections.

If the paper received much publicity at the time I have to admit that I missed it, and I'd hazard a guess that others did too. So here it is, in Welsh and English:

     

Executive Summary

The paper analyses the effect that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition's proposals to cut the number of MPs in Westminster would have in Wales, and in particular on the National Assembly.

However, with the prospect of increased devolution coupled with the over-representation of Wales in Westminster, the issues raised in the paper will remain relevant in Wales over the coming years. Electoral Reform Society Wales believes that an informed discussion of the options available in the event of such changes is vital for the future health of Welsh democracy at all governmental levels, be they at the Westminster, devolved, or local level.

I haven't read it yet, but I'd invite others to start a discussion about what's in it which I'll join when I have.

However I did notice that their preferred option for the Assembly is that it should be elected by STV in multimember constituencies of varying size, based on Local Authority boundaries. This bears an uncanny resemblance to what Penddu proposed in this post last November.

There was a short radio debate about next year's referendum on primary lawmaking powers on Wednesday's Good Morning Wales between David Llywelyn Davies of Cymru Yfory and Rachel Banner of True Wales. Because it won't be on iPlayer for long, I've put it here:

This is: the description

     

It was mentioned on the Cymru Yfory blog here, and picked up on Welsh Ramblings here.

Mrs Screwloose

We can only guess at what possessed Lynne Neagle to indulge herself in glowing praise like this, but an over-inflated sense of self-importance would appear to be what attracted the happy couple to each other.

   

Penarth Mam       Penarth Dad

Perhaps it is a mental health problem. If so, it is extraordinarily serious and obviously contagious.

Canton Schools ... More condemnation

In response to Carwyn Jones' decision to reject Cardiff's proposal for schools' reorganization in Canton, the Association of Directors of Education in Wales issued this news release today:

        

The Welsh Assembly Government's decision to reject Cardiff Council’s proposals to reorganise primary schools flies in the face of the need to continue to raise educational standards, reduce surplus places and meet the targets in the recently published Welsh-medium Education strategy, One Wales and the 21st Century Schools initiative.

The Welsh Assembly Government and Ministers have over the last few years made it clear to local authorities that they need to ensure efficiencies are realised and that they must reduce the number of surplus places. This decision from the Assembly Government is contrary to these requirements.

The outcomes of recent Estyn local authority inspections have been critical of progress by local authorities in addressing school organisation issues. The biggest impediment to reorganisation is the complex and bureaucratic processes in place at the Welsh Assembly Government which are required to achieve school closures and a reduction in surplus places.

There are numerous examples of individual Assembly Members opposing school closures within their own constituencies. This type of opposition merely adds to the difficulty of the process.

When a proposal goes through the statutory process even when there is only one objection, a very detailed report is required by the Welsh Assembly. Once it has been submitted to the Welsh Assembly, it can take up to a year to be processed and for authorities to receive a response. In contrast the initial and statutory proposal at local authority level, in often very hostile meetings consulting with the pupils, staff, governors, parents and the wider community, has taken a mere 4 to 5 months.

Whilst most proposals are eventually accepted, the rejection of the Cardiff proposals not only sets the authority back several years but leaves everyone questioning the level of commitment by the Welsh Assembly Government. If Cardiff decided to appeal this decision and proceed to a Judicial Review then ADEW would support the authority.

Now is the time to question several aspects of the current process.

The process needs to be speeded up and if it remains as currently, then there needs to be capacity to deal with proposals in a timely manner. Currently the time spent waiting is totally unacceptable.

In the past at least 10 local objections were required before the Welsh Assembly were required to rule on the proposal. Now it is one objection and this can be from someone with a very tenuous link to the schools. This needs to be reviewed.

More importantly, should the decision making process provide an approach which is independent of the political whim of the Welsh Assembly Government?
 

Chair of ADEW
Richard Parry, Strategic Director for Education Swansea City and County Council

Vice Chair of ADEW
Dr. Brett Pugh, Chief Education Officer Newport City Council

News Release, 2 June 2010

I also found this statement from the Welsh Local Government Association ... with apologies for it being a few days old:

WLGA calls for a complete national review of school closures policy in Wales

     

The retrograde and questionable decision by the Welsh Assembly Government to reject Cardiff County Council’s plans to modernise English language provision and to expand Welsh-medium education in west Cardiff yet again exposes the yawning gap between national rhetoric and local reality on the issue of surplus school places.

WLGA Education spokesperson Cllr. Peter Fox stated:

"Local authorities in Wales have been constantly exhorted by Ministers and the Schools Inspectorate Estyn to deal with the issues of surplus school places which are costly and in some cases have led to poor educational outcomes. Yet time after time, once a set of closures are proposed across any part of Wales we see Assembly Members leading campaigns to keep these same schools open. The rejection of Cardiff’s proposals calls into sharp relief the question of meaningful shared commitment at government level. This is despite consistent evidence by Estyn highlighted above which has been presented to Ministers.

"In addition, the bureaucratic process to close a school is one of huge complexity and adding to this is the emerging problem of the very slow turnaround of decisions by the Assembly Government on appeals. As a consequence this whole process is in danger of turning into an expensive waste of time. It is vital that proper consultation occurs with parents and we readily understand that many feel passionately about their local school. Local government wants a new positive rationalisation process working with parents, governors and communities to establish new structures and functions and making better use of the assets. That said the art of government is about difficult financial choices particularly in a time of massive resource constraints, in Cardiff’s case the Assembly has ducked this choice and have no alternatives to offer."

News Release, 27 May 2010

Welsh Not