News 21st April 2015

Open Government in the Plaid Cymru Manifesto

by Josephine Suherman-Bailey

Josephine was a Policy Analyst at Involve. She worked on the Open Government Partnership and supported the coordination of the UK Open Government Partnership civil society network.

We’ve been scanning through the party manifestos for policies relevant to open government. This is what we’ve found in the Plaid Cymru Manifesto. Have we missed anything?

Plaid Cymru Manifesto

Briefing on commitments of interest to open government reformers

Read the Plaid Cymru Manifesto here.

Topline messages	Quote from the manifesto	Page number
Citizen-led Constitution
Written constitution for Wales	Citizen-led Constitution All powers should be given to Wales except those the Welsh people agree should be kept by Westminster, as is the case in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Plaid Cymru will push for a written constitution for Wales which will be guided by its citizens not by politicians. Developing the Welsh constitution in this way will enable us to consider the society we want to build, not just where the powers should be held.	7
Devolution to Wales
	We want to see the full transfer to the Welsh Government of the powers recommended in both reports by the Commission on Devolution in Wales as quickly as possible so it will be possible to create a better, fairer and more prosperous society for the people of Wales. Our proposed reserved powers model would set out which powers are in the hands of the people of Wales and which still lie with Westminster.	7
Proportional representation
Support for STV for all elections	We want to see the Single Transferable Vote used, where applicable, for all elections, so that as many votes as possible count towards the election of a representative.
Constitutional reform
Elected HoL	Elected representatives must be answerable to the people. We support a right to recall Members of Parliament, and other elected representatives, who have broken the law or otherwise brought their role into disrepute. We want to see an elected House of Lords, elected by Single Transferable Vote, while decisions affecting Wales continue to be made there. There should be a Welsh constituency for elections, with a weighted balance to ensure that Wales is heard on all matters and a reduction in the number of members in the second chamber. We do not approve of the current patronage appointment system to the second chamber.	43
Lobbying
Remove part two of the Lobbying Act	We will remove part two of the Lobbying Act and will ensure that the lobbying system is genuinely transparent with appropriate access to all.	43
Local media
	We will give local newspapers the status of ‘community assets’ so that owners could not close them without communities having the opportunity to keep their paper.	63