BACKLASH TO GETHING WILL BUILD
WALES Online’s story announcing Vaughan “Calamity” Gething as the new Welsh Labour leader got hundreds of mostly critical comments from members of the public in just hours today and the backlash is growing by the minute prompted partly by a spectacularly low turnout for the contest.
Gaffe-prone Gething would not have been chosen by the public, who naturally associate him with incompetence during COVID-19 and dodgy donations from big business to fund his questionable leadership campaign, and wonder how he can now seriously become First Minister in place of retiring Mark Drakeford.
He beat current education minister Jeremy Miles – the only other contender – by nearly 52per cent to nearly 48 per cent but, according to the above story, only 9.4 per cent of eligible trades union members voted – 9.4! – and just 57 per cent of Labour members, giving an overall turnout of JUST 16 per cent, 16 per cent! No wonder they held this on a Saturday morning perhaps hoping it would sneak in under the radar beneath the Wales v Italy rugby result.
Expect the negative, critical reaction to grow in the coming days and weeks as more disturbing questions about Mr Gething’s cash donations emerge as well as natural doubts about how a turnout of just 16 per cent can, in any way, be considered conclusive, even, perhaps, valid.
In the comments section of media online platforms, a huge wave of critical reaction from angry and disgusted Welsh people furious at growing waste and expense now dominates with growing calls for a referendum to either dismantle devolution altogether or redesign it.
In their defence, Welsh Labour appears to be relying on a system of democracy in which less than 10 per cent of trades union members can be bothered to vote with a total turnout of just 16 per cent.
The backlash will not come from BBC Wales – which has sold out lock, stock and barrel to liberal postmodernist racial identity extremism running rampant on American university campuses after the death of George Floyd – but it will come hopefully from Wales Online and its numerous anonymous public commenters and, of course, from the blogosphere and just about any independent media not currently dependent upon funding from Cardiff Bay (not a huge sweep).
The election was closed within a Labour system which attempts to create a picture of healthy democracy but controversial Gething got into hot water well before today’s announcement was made by refusing to hand back £200,000 of money. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/other/vaughan-gething-lobbied-regulators-on-behalf-of-waste-offences-company-that-later-donated-200k-to-his-campaign/ar-BB1jLos6
You do wonder, frankly, what part that played given that his was such a slight majority overall in a contest with only a tiny proportion of those eligible to vote actually bothering to if these statistics are accurate.
The apathy speaks loudest here.
GARRY W GIBBS 