And I know Welsh Ramblings isn’t ordinarily, and doesn’t purport to be, a source of impartial analysis. But in this column his/her observations on the ITV poll as far as the referendum goes are sound and analytical.

Number speak for themselves.

Of course, this statement is continually proved incorrect by every major opinion poll on the issue, but let’s not let the truth stop us lowering the tone of debate on this site…

There are plenty of Welsh media sites where the comments sections are full of juvenile contributions unsupported by fact, but this is not one of those sites.

But on what do you base this? Opinion polling has shown outright opposition/abolition to be a dwindling preference. Indeed, yesterday’s ITV Wales poll showed a clear majority favouring more powers not less.

And, more to the point, YouGov’s own polling shows this to be the case too.

I respect your general position more than I agree with it, but I think that wild sweeping statements from proponents or opponents of the Assembly that they represent the vast majority of the public, or that referendum abstentions are really no votes, are so wide of the mark as to be ridiculous.

Morgan’s comments do no more than add to that.

Whatever happens when a referendum comes, the one thing I will predict with confidence is that neither side will have a sweeping victory. There won’t be compulsory voting either (a ghastly idea which I won’t attack here) so dragging the discussion off to that silly tangent is pointless.

The irony that such sweeping and ill founded statements have been made in a column discussing the science of opinion polling is something that has quite amused me.

It got established by a false election result, a totally undemocratic result, and a result that was not subjected to sufficient numbers attending the polling booths.

After the last ten years of zero achievement, the whole referendum should be repeated, but with a required turn out of at least two thirds of the electorate, if not even as in the example of Auistyralia 100%, Anything less would still be undemocratic.

As for continuance, and more powers…

The answer to both being a resounding …’NO!’.

But of course, it was not compulsory to vote in the North East referendum any more than it was in Wales.

But I agree that voting, or at least the completion of the ballot paper, should be compulsory.

In Australia they still have a ‘compulsory voting’ system whereby any inviduals who are eligible to vote are fined for not doing so.Although turn out is never 100% it is normally well over 90% and this helps to ensure that public involvement in politics is maintained to a higher degree than in the UK.

If we had this system in Wales it would at least have ensured we would not have been shackled with the dreadful Welsh Assembly. At least the voters on N.W. England had to sense to learn from our mistake and vote by 3/1 against their own regional assembly.

Most of us in Wales now wish we had done the same and at least deserve a chance to remedy the position ASAP.

I don’t care how we ask people to exercise their democratic responsibility as long as they do it somehow but maybe we are not ready for the internet quite yet.

http://shakespeare.yougov.com/2010/01/05/71-of-welsh-would-donate-their-organs-to-help-others/

In terms of application I wonder how many other charities are going to be using it to support their arguments… the super speedy turn around makes it very appealing for breaking news…

Len – you say “The current arrangement at the National Assembly is defective as the Government of Wales Act 2006 does not provide a mechanism for the scrutiny of legislation.” That’s certainly not my experience. There are 5 permanent legislative committees in the Assembly, which do a very effective job. But maybe we’re both going off on tangents here, and perhaps we should park it until your column is published on Friday?

I agree with Duncan, the article is an interesting insight into a process that will assume greater importance in the political life of Wales as the influence of the conventional media declines. The current arrangement at the National Assembly is defective as the Government of Wales Act 2006 does not provide a mechanism for the scrutiny of legislation. To date the relationship between the executive and the elected representatives has been to close to provide internal scrutiny and the poll used by the All Wales Convention is allied to the organisation currently campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote. An independant third party polling organisation is a welcome new feature to the protection of our long established democracy in Wales.