Democracy in Action – Presiding Officer issues summer challenge to people of Wales

20 July 2012

The National Assembly for Wales’s Presiding Officer, Rosemary Butler AM, is issuing the people of Wales a challenge ahead of this year’s summer shows.

At the Royal Welsh Show, National Eisteddfod and various county shows, the Assembly’s outreach team will be present providing a number of activities aimed at getting more people involved in the law-making process in Wales.

There will be a Members’ Wall where visitors will be able to pin an issue on the picture of their local Assembly Member.

It could be a local issue or a suggestion for a new Welsh law, but suggestions that fall within the Assembly’s devolved competence will be forwarded to the Member upon which the idea was pinned.

It all echoes the theme of the Assembly’s photographic competition, “Democracy in Action”, which is encouraging people across Wales to capture their view of democracy on camera.

Visitors to the summer shows will also be able to view entries by visiting the Assembly’s outreach bus which will be present on the showgrounds.

The Presiding Officer will start this summer challenge to the people of Wales by visiting the Royal Welsh Show on 23 and 25 July.

As part of the drive to encourage participation, she will meet with members of the North East Wales Women’s Food & Farming Union at the Assembly’s outreach bus on the 25 July.

“All our summer shows are family events where the emphasis is on having fun,” said Mrs Butler.

“And we are putting having fun at the centre of all the activities we’re offering at these events.

“But there is a serious side to it all as well. The people of Wales voted overwhelmingly in favour of an Assembly with full law-making powers last year.

“Now we want to hear from individuals and communities from across Wales to tell us what issues are important to them so that my colleagues and I use these enhanced law-making powers to create legislation that really does reflect the hopes and aspirations of everyone in Wales.”

At the head of this summer activity is the Assembly’s inaugural photographic competition, “Democracy in Action”.

Launched in May, the competition aims to get people to see that politics is all about issues that matter to individuals, their families and their communities, and to illustrate that by working with their elected representatives, people can address those issues and get the cogs of democracy to work in their favour.

The competition is being organised in conjunction with Ffotogallery, Wales’s champions of lens-based media and University of Wales Newport’s School of Film, Photography and Digital Media.

Participants are invited to submit their images of “Democracy in Action in Wales” here.

The successful entry will win a digital SLR camera (donated by the University of Wales Newport’s School of Film, Photography and Digital Media and a photography course run by Ffotogallery. Twenty shortlisted entries will be displayed in The Senedd during September, and the overall winner will be announced in a prize-giving ceremony on 3 October