How do people govern themselves in Wales?

Answer 1

Wales has a devolved Parliament called the Senedd, which has 60 members and is presided over by a First Minister. It holds elections every 5 years.

The Senedd has complete autonomy over the areas of transport, housing, health, education, local Government, the environment and several other aspects of Government. However, it's powers over energy policy are limited, and it has no power over policing, criminal justice, or taxation (although the latter is set to change soon, with these being devolved to the same level as they are in Scotland).

A recent report called the Silk Commission has recommended that policing powers be devolved to Wales, which will in turn necessitate Wales having it's own justice system too. However, at present these are controlled by central Government in London.

The political parties in Wales are Labour, the Conservatives, the Welsh Nationalist Party Plaid Cymru, the Liberal Democrats, and several independent political candidates. Wales is currently governed by a minority Labour government, which has to rely upon support from either Plaid Cymru or the Liberal Democrats to pass any legislation.

UKIP, the United Kingdom Independence Party, has a tiny representation, but it's following within Welsh government is marginal because one of it's policies if elected to power in London would be to abolish the Welsh Parliament, which virtually no Welsh people want now.

Wales has four members of the European Parliament- one Labour, one Plaid Cymru, one Conservative, and one UKIP, although the latter was elected as a 'protest vote' before most people understood what UKIP would do to Wales if elected to power in Westminster. He will probably lose his seat at the next European Elections.