The cost of democracy

There was an interesting interview on the BBC’s Good Morning Wales programme today in which Welsh Labour Leadership contender, Huw Lewis was put on the spot about a future referendum on primary law-making powers.

Huw was intent on not giving a straight answer to fairly straightforward questions but one contribution stood out. He said that during the 1997 referendum campaign he had occupied a senior organising post in Welsh Labour HQ. A decision was taken to prioritise the push for a ‘yes’ vote and the Labour party brought in 20 full time organisers and put in £300,000 to pay for the campaign.

All-in-all Huw told listeners the cost to the Labour Party of winning the narrow majority to set up the Assembly was about £600,000. They certainly do not have that sort of money to spend now.

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