Some may think Wales is a classless, egalitarian paradise – or at least should be.
Everyone is a salt-of-the-earth stiff with working-class roots. We don’t do elitism. No old boys clubs. We leave that to the English toffs, don’t we?
Anarchism.
Joking aside, assuming we’re always going to have an “elite”, we can certainly tweak things to level the playing field at bit. There’s very little we can do socially, but politically:
Anti-nepotism and cronyism policies (or laws, if needed) – This could include things like a presumption against internal-only vacancies within organisations receiving public funding, blind recruitment/applications (so you don’t the details of the individuals or organisations applying for a role or funding) and maintaining existing policies like a ban on MSs hiring relatives. Politicians should also wear shirts with sponsors and “key stakeholders” they have an interest in similar to football teams (c/o Robin Williams). Even basic stuff you would hope already happens. For example, people who have even the slightest interest in, or relationship with, someone or some organisation applying for even the most modest grant recusing themselves from any decisions.
Extend “cooling off” rules for public officials switching roles – There are already minimum time limits between someone leaving a public office and taking up a role as a lobbyist or something similar. This could be extended to include any role where public funding, lobbying for public funding or contract decisions are involved. So ex-elected politicians don’t move “sideways” into a council officer role, Future Generations Commissioner or vice-versa, for example.
Term limits for senior public-facing roles – I’ve come around in favour of term limits for politicians, but it could be extended to all senior public-facing decision-making roles (i.e. chairs and chief executives of public broadcasters and public agencies, council chief executives, council department directors). We already have term limits for public commissioners like the Children’s and Future Generations commissioners (a single term of 7 years).
Lobbying register – The Senedd is the only parliament in the UK that doesn’t have a statutory lobbying register as the sector is self-regulating (as things stand). There have been calls for one, while some aspects of lobbying at the Senedd – cross-party groups, for example – have a patchy record when it comes to monitoring.
Mentoring and using local government as an “apprenticeship” for higher office – The short-term/quick-fix option for improving diversity and representation in politics is the introduction of things like quotas and pairing. If you want to build confidence, improve the quality of politicians and create a natural “conveyor belt” of talent then local government could be used as a stepping stone to higher office – ideally with a massive reduction in the number of councillors (and other accompanying reforms) so parties promote quality of candidates over quantity. Elected mayors, for example, could provide direct government experience for future ministers, while creating local codes of bylaws would provide law-making experience for future MSs.
Primary elections and/or open lists – As mentioned in Senedd & Elections Bill: The Good, the Bad, The Missed Opportunities. If we’re going to switch to an electoral system where we vote for a party either let us select the order of the candidates on the ballot paper itself (open list) or via open primaries 6-12 months before the election.
A new charter for public consultations – Most of us probably think that public consultations are a sham; they rarely lead to any changes and decisions give the impression of being made beforehand. Public consultations are just there to give the impression we were asked. While public consultations shouldn’t be treated like referendums, there need to be clear explanations/public statements as to why consultation feedback is ignored/overridden. There should also be a mechanism to void consultations that ask loaded/leaning questions that support a particular course of action.
