No More Lockdowns in Wales
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Wales Elects SENEDD ELECTIONS – MAY 6th 2021 No more lockdowns in Wales If Wales has another full-scale national lockdown, it will be a huge policy failure by politicians THE DEFAULT POSITION of many countries over the past year when there has been a rise in Covid-19 cases has been to lockdown the entire nation. Back in March 2020, when we had the first UK lockdown, choosing this path had some logic. The virus was spreading, and we had little information about who was at risk. Countries went into lockdown one by one, and it was an easy option to follow the crowd rather than stand out on our own against it. A year on and with such rich data on the population After 22 years and the effect of Covid-19 we believe that following the same path in the future would be madness. of Welsh Labour Nathan Gill, Leader of Reform UK, Wales rule, it is time to reform Wales DEMOCRATIC accountability and bringing democracy closer to the people was the raison d’être for The Brexit Party, which very much So what have we learned? remains the case for Reform Let’s start with the worst-case scenario of deaths. The UK following our recent Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports how many name change now that have occurred with Covid-19 mentioned on the death Brexit has been delivered. certificate. At the time of writing this, the number was We acknowledge 137,334 across England and Wales. For every life cut devolution isn’t working at short, we should pause and remember the heartbreak the moment, but we strongly for each family. Remember, while a death is a statistic, believe this is because of to each family it is far more than that. third rate politicians, put in The statistics help us understand who is most place by the Welsh Labour susceptible to Covid-19. It shows that 83% of all the machine, who would not deaths have been for those aged 70 and over. For those last five minutes at a senior Continued on page 2 Continued on page 3 How does Wales elect people for its Parliament? — the voting system explained associated with first-past-the-post Following this, a count of the The good news is that with this elections. The ballot lists names second ballot papers identifies the system every vote matters. If just 1 representing each party in the region, four remaining candidates for the in 10 of you vote for Reform UK in and a vote for a party is a vote to region. Depending on how many your region on the regional vote, make more of their candidates into seats a party wins on the first ballot, you will elect us to represent you. It Members of the Senedd. There are the additional members allocated is time to get politicians in the five regions of Wales with four from the regional list aims to make Senedd that work for the people, candidates elected in each. the Welsh Parliament match how the and not those who expect the country voted. people to work for them. There are 60 candidates elected to Constituency vote represent Wales in the elections. 40 First past the post favours larger and through a system like Westminster traditional parties. Smaller parties elections, where the candidate with and independents struggle to get the most votes wins. This happens enough support to win outright, even if most people didn’t vote for even though they could get a them, i.e. the majority voted for a significant percentage of the vote. combination of other candidates. Wales elects a further 20 candidates through a second ballot, Regional vote where you choose a party only. The Each region in Wales comprises eight regional vote uses proportional constituencies. A count of the first representation known as the past the post ballot papers identifies Additional Member System. This helps the eight winners of the to overcome the imbalance often constituency vote. Covid-19 we will never know. Lockdowns spending £139 million per day on job No more full-scale would have meant fewer deaths from support, even when the data would lockdowns in Wales causes such as road accidents, but suggest it is much safer to allow people increased deaths from people avoiding back to work. Remember this is not Continued from page 1 visiting hospitals or other treatment Government money, this is our money. who have died younger, data from NHS cancelled. We know the pandemic England suggest less than 1% of deaths prematurely ended lives. were among people aged under 60 with Moving forward no underlying health condition. Economic and wider Since the rollout of the vaccine, we have We need to remember these statistics seen a rapid increase in population-wide do not tell us if Covid-19 caused the health impact antibodies against the virus which grows death. Some people will have died for Much of the discussion of the past year daily. Of course, not everyone will choose other reasons but had the virus and has been on the health impact of the to have the vaccine, and for some they a positive test. We can understand the virus. Daily we learn the number of fresh cannot have it. But we are reaching scale of the pandemic by ignoring cases, number of recent deaths but little levels where the vaccine is winning the the cause of death and looking at on the number of fresh job losses and battle against Covid. We are approaching how many deaths occurred from all business closures. so called ‘herd immunity’ if we haven’t causes and compare that to how many Between February 2020 and February reached it already. typically occur. 2021 around 700,000 fewer people were With all of the data we have, with the It was around the first week of March on payrolls in the UK. The true impact understanding of who is at risk, and with 2020 we started seeing the rise in deaths will be higher as this excludes the several vaccines on the table, should we with Covid-19. Since then to 19 March impact on the self-employed. For each enter another full-scale lockdown in the 2021, there have been 672,533 deaths person, this is a significant life event future, this would be a massive policy registered in England and Wales from all that causes huge turmoil on the failure by the politicians. causes. Over the same period between individual and their family. The total We have not yet started the hangover 2015 and 2019, there was an average of cost in payments through the furlough from the past year, with missed health 556,892 deaths registered. We can say scheme up to 15 March 2021 across the diagnosis just the tip of the iceberg. We the pandemic has led to over 100,000 UK was £58 billion. This does not even need to learn from the mass data people losing their life who would be include the loss in tax revenues because gathering to manage any future with us today had Covid-19 never hit people have not been earning and pandemics far more effectively. Do we these shores. The exact number who paying tax, and the wider economy trust those in charge at the moment to died specifically because they caught being closed. We have recently been do that? Sadly, we don’t. 2 After 22 years of Welsh Labour rule, it is time to reform Wales Continued from page 1 level in business. This has been the case now for 22 years and Welsh Labour’s time in power has left many communities across Wales with high levels of poverty and deprivation. Labour has lived off the fact that generations of voters have defaulted to voting Labour as they were seen as the party of the working man and woman. But the Labour party of the past 20 years and today, is not the party your parents and reaching the semi-finals of recognise the argument tax to £20,000. Doing this grandparents voted for. the 2016 football UEFA needs to be settled, which is will ensure all front-line Labour’s policies have done a European Championships. why Reform UK supports a workers get a permanent lot of damage to Wales, but this We have a unique history referendum to settle both pay rise. doesn’t mean we should throw and heritage and our own issues. We feel this is Health and social care the baby out with the bathwater traditions. Wales is a nation important so that our workers have worked hard and cancel devolution. Neither that is more than capable nation can unite and move during the pandemic, but does it mean we should support of taking decisions for forward. We will actively so have supermarket the separatists who would break itself. Handing power over campaign to keep workers, delivery drivers up our precious union. Wales to the Tories in governance in Wales and and many other key Reform UK believes a strong Westminster would be a we will oppose separation workers that didn’t get a voice in Wales will strengthen backwards step for Wales. from the UK. one-off bonus from the the United Kingdom. We are In recent years calls for Reform UK has a credible Labour Party days before proud of Wales and its people independence and economic plan to put the election was called. and believe Wales is not just abolishing the parliament money back into people’s The pandemic has left another region of England, it is a have grown, but they pockets because we know many people out of work nation within the UK.