Sir,
So the referendum when the people of Wales were asked to vote on whether they believed the Welsh Assembly should have power to pass laws without them having to be approved by the Westminster Government first was decided on Thursday. Many of us in Wales felt that this was a very dangerous situation as the House of Commons has the Upper House, the House of Lords, to scrutinise their decision. Wales will not have an upper house to scrutinise their decisions and, bearing in mind the cost, this is something I definitely do not recommend should be created.
We also voted no on the poor record of the Assembly over the past 12 years and we felt it was wrong to give them more power until they had proved themselves worthy of extra power and responsibility.
The referendum was held and the votes were counted and, how ever unpalatable we find the result, we all have to accept the verdict. The Yes side polled 517,132 votes the No polled 297,380 and 1,473,443 did not vote, i.e. out of 15 votes, three voted yes, two voted no and 10 did not vote. A very hollow result and it was sad to see the victors who have the responsibility of representing us at the Assembly jumping with joy over it.
Their defence was that only 34.1 per cent voted the referendum to set up the London Assembly. We are not comparing like with like. London is an urban area where you would expect a low turnout, while Wales is mainly rural where voting is usually higher and the Welsh Assembly receives considerable publicity in various ways.
When we look at the other regions of the UK we find that Wales is bottom of the league and nothing that happened on Thursday's voting will alter this situation.
Sir Eric Howells,
Llanddewi Velfrey.