Nick Bourne’s suggestions as to how the Welsh Conservative Assembly Group might address its little problem with diversity has met with severe resistance from one of his key candidates.
On the Aberconwy Conservative blog, Guto Bebb is quite scathing about the Welsh Tory leader’s proposals to use the Assembly list system to get more women and people from ethnic minorities into winnable positions. Mr. Bourne also wishes to adopt the sort of practice observed by other political parties of ensuring women or ethnic minority candidates are shortlisted and providing mentoring and training.
Of course the Welsh Liberal Democrats have also rejected positive discrimination measures and have so far managed to get a good male-female balance in their Assembly representation. However, they have never debated the issue in such personal terms as those used by Mr. Bebb, who is particularly scathing about the way that Nick Bourne has designed his proposals so as to protect his own position as Conservative AM for Mid and West Wales:
I also feel that the comment that the top spot should go to a woman or ethnic minority candidate unless there is an incumbent is unacceptable. This is creating one rule for most candidates and another for Nick Bourne (who is the incumbent in Mid and West Wales). This proposal should be rejected.
The real test of the Welsh Tory Leader’s proposals will be what happens if Alun Cairns succeeds is getting elected as the MP for the Vale of Glamorgan and then stands down from his Assembly seat. Who succeeds him will be in the hands of the Welsh Conservative hierarchy. Will the new Conservative Assembly Member for South Wales West be another white middle class male or will the Tories bite the bullet and put a more diverse candidate in place. We shall see.
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This initiative was never going to be plain sailing, but the Conservatives need to take hard action to diversify. After all, they’d be an all male group in the Assembly if it wasn’t for 100 votes in west Wales.
Why assume that Alun Cairns will leave the Assembly of elected to Westminster? David Davies waited 2 years remember.
Daran I think it is a reasonable assumption to make that Alun Cairns will want to concentrate on Parliament straight away without the distractions of a regional Assembly seat covering a different area. If he wins his seat will be marginal and will need much more nursing than Monmouth did when David Davies won that. In any case David’s responsibilities were coterminous. It is also the case that if David had resigned straight away there would have been a by-election. That would not be the case if Alun Cairns leaves the Assembly.
Yes, but the person second on the list is a proper, unreformed, lunatic Tory I gather, and David Cameron called Bourne to get his deselected, accroding to some of the Eli Jenkins rumours.
So Alun Cairns may stay in the Senedd just to keep an example of old Thatcherism out.