Tory MS who failed to vote on Covid passes backs claim than Welsh Government ‘exploited’ the error
A Tory Senedd Member who failed to vote to block the introduction of Covid passes in Wales has backed a campaigner who claimed it showed an “alarming disregard for democracy” and that the Welsh Government had exploited the error.
The NHS Covid pass for clubs and large events will be introduced on Monday after Tory MS Gareth Davies failed to get on Zoom to cast his vote last night, which was only won by the government by one vote.
The Welsh Conservatives have blamed “technical difficulties” for why Gareth Davies could not take part, but have not explained where he was or what the nature of his difficulties were.
But the Head of Research at civil liberties and privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch tweeted yesterday to criticise Senedd speaker Elin Jones’ decision to move on and conduct the vote without Gareth Davies being present.
“Whether you support Covid passes or oppose, Elin Jones’ decision to deny Gareth Davies MS a vote on them and the exploitation of a technical glitch by the Welsh Gov to pass a major attack on civil liberties shows an alarming disregard for democracy,” he said.
Gareth Davies then quote tweeted the message to agree with the message, saying “Sad but true”.
The Senedd and Welsh Government are separate institutions and speaker Elin Jones is from a party, Plaid Cymru, that voted against the Covid passes.
‘Protected’
In a statement last night Elin Jones said she gave the member “every opportunity” to be present.
“It is a member’s responsibility to give themselves sufficient time to secure their Zoom connection in time for voting, just as it is for any member travelling to the Senedd to vote,” she said.
None of the Senedd groups, including the Conservatives, have so far asked for the vote to be re run.
Health Minister Eluned Morgan has since said that the vote will not be re-run, saying that re-running votes is not “how democratic processes work”.
“You don’t keep on having a vote until you get the answer that you want,” she told the BBC.
“Actually this is a system that’s been in place for about four months already. People have been using it throughout the summer.
“What we know is that the people of Wales want to be protected.
“We had a huge mandate as a result of the election because of our cautious approach”.
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Tory technological incompetence. What a surprise
The clot wasnt ‘denied an opportunity to vote’ – Davies was given every opportunity to vote but for some unaccountable reason he failed to do so. He cannot now attempt to blame others for his own incompetence.
Those little switches on the side of electronic kit can be awful fiddly, especially if you are technologically challenged and too busy looking at stuff you shouldn’t be aware of on another machine !
‘Technical difficulties’? Was he perhaps copying his boss and was too busy ‘exchanging bodily fluids’ with other Tories at the Manchester conference to use zoom? Which is more important to him: doing his paid job representing his constituents in Caerdydd, or going on a jolly in Manchester with other Tories, who are probably high on coke and alcohol?
Yes he is as he is exceptionally arrogant and ignorant at the same time. They believe that they are right and anyone or anything that stops them even their own stupidity is someone else’s fault. Like in the 30’s in Germany
The guy is a moron and this is totally his fault. Either you make sure your pc is working beforehand or you go to the Senedd to vote. Everyone elses fault but his own. Typical tory manbaby. Its like me whining that I didn’t turn up on time to vote in an election. My fault, do better next time. But no, this a-hole tries to undermine the Senedd and its rules because it fits his idiotic parties narrative while they are trying to wipe out our democracy.
His own paerty thinks him a d******d and has not asked for a re-vote.
The Welsh government exploited it? I didn’t realise Elin Jones swapped sides from Plaid to Labour overnight.
I missed my bus last night , I got to the stop not long after it left, an alarming disregard for democracy!
It is the member’s responsibility to show up and do their job. The fact that he didn’t appear is not the fault of the Senedd, the voters should have picked a more capable MS.
Voting errors happen, even when people are present (see link for one example of many) but if they are reasons to abolish a Parliament Westminster would be for the axe too.
Coronavirus: MP goes wrong way to vote, then votes wrong way | UK News | Sky News
“You don’t keep on having a vote until you get the answer that you want,” now that’s a rule that needs to be embedded in our system.
“An alarming disregard for democracy”.
That’s a bit rich coming from the Tories. If it were up to them there wouldn’t be any democracy – come to think of it they have spent the last 11 years undermining democracy.
‘Despicable flouting of democracy’? I’d almost agree, but for very different reasons. Remote voting should only be allowed for very good reasons – and being on a jolly in Manchester isn’t one of them. It’ll be better when Cymru abolishes it’s connection to Westminster.
If you were proud of your Welsh identity you would be proud that our democracy did its job last night and it wasn’t undermined by the tories even though its this guys fault the new covid passport rules were pushed through. This is that guys fault for taking his job so lightly and going in unprepared after a year voting in the Senedd through zoom calls. This is democracy at work, you can’t just wait around for politicians to get their sh1t sorted when everyone else is ready to vote.
I absolutely agree that this berk has no one to blame but himself. Having said that, I also think the time has come to move back to Members having to be present to vote and participate. I can quite legally attend a gathering of 72,000 people at the millennium stadium, or go to a hospitality venue with hundreds of others and not even wear a mask, but it’s not possible for 60 Senedd Members to meet in person (with screens between desks, mask-wearing compulsory while not speaking and 100% vaccination)? I don’t think so.
Can you distinguish between people placing themselves in harms way unnecessarily and requiring people to do so?
This Tory must be either…
a)completely incompetent, or
b)completely deceitful, in that he agreed with the proposal and used the situation as an excuse to keep face with his party.
Either way he’s completely useless.
Please stop voting these liars into Wales, thanks
As far as I can understand he was attending the Tory Party conference. That’s stretching the rules about remote voting where it ment for the use of those Senedd members working from home and self isolating.
Idiot Torie kick all English party’s out of wales that’s the Tories Labour and all Brexit party’s it’s time for a new wales 🏴 start fighting for your children and grandchildren future in wales 🏴
Didn’t they teach him anything at the private school he attended?
Apparently he was too drunk to work zoom effectively as anyone working at 9 am in the morning after a hard night in will testify. Karaoke with Coffey takes its toll if you are out and about in that decadent Manchester City