Pandemic-related developments aside, the Fifth Senedd is now done and so is Senedd Home.
Coverage of the 2021 elections has started at State of Wales. Hopefully, there’ll be a teaser for what I’ve got planned for State of Wales after the election in the next few days.
As I did in 2016, I finish with my personal awards/curses for the term.
The Good Awards
Best Ministerial Performance
Winner: Kirsty Williams (Lib Dem, Brecon & Radnor) – Minister for Education (2016-2021)
Runner-up: Julie James (Lab, Swansea West) – Minister for Housing & Local Government (2018-2021)
I don’t know whether Kirsty Williams intended to go into government in 2016 having seen her party nearly wiped-out in the election. Her hand was forced somewhat by that First Minister vote, but it’s turned out to be a happy accident (if not properly addressed as a Lab-Lib coalition).
Kirsty Williams has been at the forefront of significant policy decisions and issues this term, including reform of additional learning needs legislation, student finance reform, the introduction of the new national curriculum, overseeing the devolution of teachers’ pay and conditions (as well as several industrial disputes in schools, further education colleges and universities over pay and working conditions) and managing the education sector through the Covid-19 pandemic. There’s also, for the first time in a long time, been good news on the PISA front on her watch.
At the start of the pandemic, she communicated far more effectively with the public than the rest of the Welsh Government – who significantly floundered. Showing Labour up to that extent forced them to learn from her example. She’s going to be a big loss to the Senedd and will likely be towards the top of the list of the best First Ministers we never had.
Best Committee Chair
Winner: Lynne Neagle (Lab, Torfaen) – Education & Young People Committee
Runner-up: David Rees (Lab, Aberavon) – External Affairs & Additional Legislation Committee
The Education, Children & Young People Committee has produced some of the most comprehensive reports this term (occasionally too comprehensive).
While they haven’t all led to action, they’ve laid out a fairly broad, extensively researched picture of how things are going on the ground, whether it’s school finance, the Welsh Baccalaureate or the mental health of young people.
Quite a few committees haven’t shied away from criticising the government, but this committee has seemingly been amongst the more vocal. While the reports are drafted collectively, on occasion you need to remind yourself that a Labour MS is the chair. That says something for the depth and impartiality of the reports – some of which surely made uncomfortable reading.
Best Committee Inquiry
Winner: Mental Health Support for Young People (Education & Young People Committee)
Joint runner-up: Soft Power (External Affairs Committee) & The Circuit of Wales (Public Accounts Committee)
Given the above, it’s not surprising I selected one of the Education & Young People’s Committee reports as the winner.
In some cases, thoroughness may be a bad thing and a sign that it should’ve been split up into separate inquiries. That said, this particular report dealt with a very serious, immediate and delicate topic with the necessary candour and sense of urgency. Some of the findings should make decision-makers sit up and pay attention as the mental health of young people is a ticking time bomb, not helped by the Covid-19 pandemic.
It didn’t spare the rod, with several rebukes for the Welsh Government on their failure to meet CAMHS waiting time targets, problems associated with the school counsellor system and the increasingly poisonous impact of social media.
Best Newcomer
Joint-winner: Steffan Lewis & Delyth Jewell (both Plaid, South Wales East)
Runner-up: Jeremy Miles (Lab, Neath)
I doubt there are as many first-term MSs who’ve made as big an impact. Steffan Lewis seemed like a natural having hit the ground running from day one, playing an instrumental role in negotiating a compact between Labour and Plaid Cymru and tabling a Bill in an attempt to protect devolution from the fallout of Brexit. It’s to Wales’ detriment that Steffan left us far too soon in such a cruel manner. How he dealt with his health problems and mortality with dignity and frankness is an example to us all. I’m in no doubt he would’ve made it to the very top.
We would all do well to remember how difficult it would have been for his successor. If I remember correctly, Delyth Jewell was a “stand-in for the stand-in” after one of the 2016 list candidates withdrew late on in the campaign.
Just like her predecessor, Delyth seems like a natural. Despite coming into office half-way through the term, she got up to speed very quickly and caused ministers no end of problems. People focus on the speeches but she’s been more effective in line-by-line scrutiny and demonstrating foresight, publicising issues around care home Covid testing and vaccination of people with learning disabilities weeks before the Welsh Government were eventually forced to make u-turns. She’s spoken of her “guilt” at having to take Steffan’s place in such circumstances, but she doesn’t have anything to be guilty about.
Best Contribution to a Senedd Debate
Winner: Suzy Davies (Con, South Wales West) – Endometriosis
Runner-up: Dr Dai Lloyd (Plaid, South Wales West) – Baby loss
Personal Award
Winner: Dr Hefin David (Lab, Caerphilly)
One of the most disappointing aspects of Senedd Home – but not entirely surprising – is how little support it received.
While Suzy Davies (Con, South Wales West) and Helen Mary Jones (Plaid, Mid & West Wales) deserve honourable mentions here, the most consistent supporter of my work has been Hefin David.
The biggest challenges I’ve faced while doing this are, firstly, a mix of finances/time and secondly being treated with any sort of esteem as part of the so-called “Welsh media”. Some of that is a legitimate challenge (I’m not a professional journalist after all, I’m actually a scientist); some of it is a mix of snobbery, refusing to play ball by doing my own work instead of re-publishing press releases and being outgunned financially and/or on social media. While it’s right to say that nobody asked me to do this and I can only grumble so much, I can’t help but feel let down by the very low value placed on my time and efforts compared to others (and it’s not just Senedd Home, I’d include State of Wales in that). “Phoning it in” for the last three months had made me realise how much I’ve been doing for very little in return.
I know he’s not the most popular figure amongst nationalists, but I don’t care; Hefin David is one of the few people in a position of authority who understood what I was trying to do with Senedd Home and took it seriously. That gave me a sense it meant something even if it wasn’t valued. He’s one of the few people inside the bubble not ashamed or embarrassed to say they appreciated the (often excruciating levels of) work. Being noticed and thanked given the amount of work I’ve done counts for something and helped me keep going for as long as I did.
It’s also no surprise that despite the hand-wringing over the lack of coverage of the Senedd, he seems to have been the only member to have expressed any disappointment at Senedd Home’s demise (which, sadly, says it all and not something I’m likely to forget).
The Bad Awards
Enough with the niceties. Time to be a bastard.
Best Parliamentarian
Most Improved MS
Winner: They don’t deserve it.
Best Parliamentarian hasn’t been awarded because while there are perhaps two or three members who genuinely merit it – Jack Sargeant (Lab, Alyn & Deeside) deserves a nod here at the very least – the overall standard of behaviour in the Senedd over the last five years has noticeably gotten worse. For the same reason, I’m not awarding a Most Improved MS either.
I knew it was going to be bad in 2016, but the Fifth Senedd ended up being torturous. Not quite as demented as Westminster, but I suppose you get the politicians you deserve.
The race for hot takes on social media is partly to blame, but there’s also the smug self-righteousness when things don’t go their own way, grandstanding stunts, constant musical chairs on the regional lists, abuse of the complaints system, high-handed decision-making behind closed doors, headline-chasing policies without detail, the repetition of stale old debates without any accompanying action, the “off the field” incidents….
That’s before noting the impact of events they couldn’t control. The election can’t come soon enough. Although a clear-out of the bad eggs could improve matters, I hope we switch to four-year terms and change the electoral system as quickly as possible because the biggest threat to devolution is the Senedd itself. The likes of Abolish the Assembly realise this.
Worst Ministerial Performance
Winner: Eluned Morgan (Lab, Mid & West Wales), Minister for International Affairs & Welsh Language (2018-2020)
Runner-up: Dafydd Elis-Thomas (Ind, Dwyfor Meirionnydd), Deputy Minister for Culture, Tourism & Sport (2017-2021)
There are a few who merit this one, but it’s more a case of failing to live up to expectations than an outright poor performance.
People pointed towards Eluned Morgan’s election to the Senedd in 2016 as a sign that big personalities in the Labour party in Wales were increasingly looking to Cardiff Bay to fulfil their ambitions rather than London (or until Brexit, Brussels).
She was on the shortlist of potential future First Ministers from the start and ran a credible leadership campaign in 2018, but her first tenure as a minister wasn’t auspicious. There was an expectation she would hit the ground running in an important position with regards to Brexit (and an exciting opportunity to be Wales’ first “Foreign Minister”), but appeared at times to not be in full command of her (somewhat confusing, admittedly) ministerial brief and even on occasion giving the impression that she couldn’t be bothered.
Eluned was given another chance as the newly-created Minister for Mental Health, has made the right noises so far and is still likely to be one of the front-runners in any future Labour leadership contest once Mark Drakeford stands down. There have been plenty of times where a poor performance in one brief doesn’t impact long-term chances of leadership – Mark Drakeford, people forget, wasn’t a particularly good Health Minister, but restored his reputation as Finance Minister.
Biggest Whopper
Winner: “We are not in favour of abolishing the Assembly”- Mark Reckless (UKIP/Con/Brexit Party/Abolish the Welsh Assembly Party, South Wales East)
Runner-up: “We accept the Brexit referendum result….” – Various
“I’ve never been in favour of eating people’s faces” says leopard from the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party.
Teacup Typhoon Award For Manufactured Crisis
Winner: Debate over the Senedd’s Name – Senedd & Elections Act 2020
Runner-up: “The Cruel Five-Mile Rule” – Conservatives, Covid-19 Pandemic
This “accidental renaissance” scene wasn’t an earnest debate on expanding life-saving cancer care, radically reducing school class sizes or authorising a high-speed rail line or anything like this. They were, in fact, considering what their post-nominal acronym should be. There was a real risk the Bill would collapse if they didn’t figure this out when it should have been decided long before.
MSs are so obsessed with their own legacy and writing their own entry in the history books that they have an annoying habit of calling things “historic” when they’re not. This is a case in point.
It seems almost heresy to say it, but the Senedd & Elections Act 2020 is an underwhelming law that misses umpteen opportunities to address serious defects in the Welsh devolution settlement (like the electoral system) for the sake of winning little battles now. Changing the name of the legislature and lowering the voting age won’t do anything to boost interest in and coverage of it (as we’re about to find out over the next few weeks), while the name Member of the Senedd/MS is itself a botched compromise.
Worst Contribution to a Senedd Debate
Winner: Mandy Jones (Brexit Party/Ind, North Wales) – “What will * you * do to address concerns around medicine supplies caused by the Brexit I enthusiastically support?”
Runner-up: David Rowlands (UKIP/Brexit Party/Ind, South Wales East) – “We’re going to build a road and make the Irish pay for it“.
The Sustainability Award for Unsustainable Linguistic Obfuscation
Winner: Plaid Cymru motion on education, October 2020
Runner-up: Education & Young People Committee report on School Funding
Opposition debates have a bad rep. As they’re not binding on the government they carry little weight, though they can occasionally be used to embarrass the ruling party/parties – as happened with a carefully-worded motion on teaching BAME history.
The best opposition motions focus on one subject, are as succinct as possible and leave the details to the debate itself.
Plaid got cocky following their unexpected success, putting together a “designed by committee” motion – the second in as many weeks – which was supposed to lay multiple traps for the government. In the end, it was longer than the article written about it, touched on several different (largely unrelated) topics at once, led to a crap debate and was thrown out. It underlined their somewhat haphazard approach to curriculum reform and read much like how a jazz band would sound falling down the stairs.
The Fifth Senedd’s Mr/Ms Cellophane
There are a few honourable mentions here.
Some simply didn’t contribute enough in the chamber but were saved by virtue of their committee work or standing out in other ways.
Some made deliberately provocative remarks, attempted to draw attention to themselves by dragging debate down to their level, but did at least have a good attendance record and were capable of proper scrutiny when the cameras weren’t on them.
There was one member though who seemingly made no mark at all despite his high profile before the 2016 election: Nathan Gill (UKIP/Ind/Brexit Party, North Wales).
I almost had sympathy for him being ousted as UKIP’s group leader by Hambo. Given the years it’s taken him to get elected to the Senedd, you would’ve thought he would’ve kicked on and become one of the main anti-establishment voices in Welsh politics.
The problem was there was no voice at all. When he turned up, his plenary contributions totalled a little over 5,000 words and most of his committee contributions were one sentence follow-up questions.
His tenure lasted a year and a half, at which point he decided his Brussels entitlements were more important than representing the people of North Wales. A complete waste and whenever our elected representatives waste their time, they’re wasting our time.
