Government of Wales Bill

I had not intended to speak to the group of amendments, but given the views of the Liberal Democrats on amendment No. 110, which was moved by my hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas), I am rather puzzled by their position on the group. Amendment No. 110 was quite modest in comparison because it referred to consultation with the people of Wales on whether the electoral system should be changed. The hon. Member for Montgomeryshire (Lembit Öpik) more or less dismissed the amendment by going on about the number of people who voted for the Government at the general election. However, I now assume that the Liberal Democrats and those who support the amendments in the group believe that the present system of top-ups is flawed and discredited. It is fair enough if that is their view, but it seems to contradict what was set out to the Committee half an hour ago. I find that difficult to understand. We could spend hours and hours debating whether single transferable voting is a good or bad system. The question is: has there been sufficient consultation of the people of Wales about whether this is the appropriate system to replace the system with which the hon. Member for Cardiff, Central (Jenny Willott) now says she does not agree? In a previous debate, the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham (Mrs. Gillan) implied that we were not allowed to change our minds—but the whole purpose of the Bill is to change the system on the basis of the experience of the past seven or eight years. Hers is a flawed and preposterous argument, and if it is used further in this debate, it should be knocked down with the ferocity that it deserves. The amendment would not allow anyone in Wales to be properly consulted about whether we should have the single transferable vote. I am not arguing about the STV system itself, but about whether there should be a proper consultation on it. It has been argued that Lord Richard’s committee was one, but that was not about the electoral system alone; it was about a whole host of systems. My hon. Friend the Member for Wrexham (Ian Lucas) and I argued that there should be a specific consultation among the Welsh people about the way in which we elect our Assembly.