AMs who are not seeking re-election (original) (raw)

David Davies - Conservative

Not to be confused with his near-namesake in Westminster, David Davies has been assembly member for Monmouth in south Wales since devolution in 1999.

At the 2005 election, however, he was also elected MP for the constituency, and he is stepping down from the assembly at this year's election to concentrate on his parliamentary work.

"It was always my intention, and I made this quite clear," he says. "I didn't think it was ideal to do both jobs."

Of his time in the Welsh assembly, Mr Davies says: "I've tried to develop a job with no job description."

He describes the role of assembly member as that of "a super-councillor, someone who deals with local issues but on a constituency-wide level", and mentions drawing attention to council tax rises as one of his biggest achievements.

Mr Davies was the only Conservative elected to the Welsh assembly via the first-past-the-post system - as opposed to the party list - in both 1999 and 2003. He beat the sitting MP, Labour's Huw Edwards, to take his parliamentary seat in 2005.

To differentiate himself from David Davis, he is known in parliament as David TC Davies, which has led to fellow MPs referring to him as Top Cat, after the cartoon character.

On one occasion, Mr Davies recalls rising to ask a question of the prime minister only to witness several hundred MPs begin singing the theme tune from the cartoon series. Peter Hain then performed a solo version the following week.

The 36-year-old, who writes a rather rightwing blog ("Personally I would have thought it would be incredibly easy to deport people to Somalia. You simply fly them to Kenya and drive them north to the border then wave them across") is married to Aliz, a Hungarian, and has two children.

He is a member of the Welsh affairs select committee in the House of Commons.

Sue Essex - Labour

Sue Essex, the finance minister in Rhodri Morgan's government, is also retiring at the coming election.

Ms Essex has been assembly member for Cardiff North since the devolved body was set up in 1999. Known as a "tremendous operator", she was born in 1945 and brought up in north London, moving to south Wales in 1971 to work in local government.

A former planning lecturer at Cardiff University and the first female leader of Cardiff county council, she has worked to make Welsh government more efficient and accessible and has stressed the importance of public services to create "a healthier, more prosperous, better educated, bilingual and sustainable Wales".

Her cabinet post also covers local government and public services, and Ms Essex has also served as the assembly's environment, transport and planning minister, during which time she launched a scheme to give free bus passes to older and disabled people.

Owen John Thomas - Plaid Cymru

Owen John Thomas, the Welsh assembly's shadow culture minister, decided when he stood for election in 2003 that this term would be his last.

"I'm 67," he says. "I'm fit for my age. I would like to enjoy my retirement in a state of fitness where one determines one's own agenda."

Mr Thomas is one of four assembly members for South Wales Central, a large constituency whose representatives are chosen via the list system.

Mr Thomas, who learned Welsh in his late 20s, has argued for increased promotion of the language, writing in the Western Mail: "The language is a national asset and its revitalisation can play a central part in the larger process of nation building and economic and social regeneration."

The former deputy head has also complained that Welsh children are taught "the history of England, not the history of Britain".

His proudest achievements as an AM include an unsuccessful campaign to have St David's day recognised as a bank holiday, his role in the creation of the Wales Millennium centre, an arts venue which opened in 2004, and his campaigns for the Allied Steel and Wire pension fund and to bring brachytherapy, a cancer treatment, to the principality.

He hopes to see the Welsh assembly gain the same powers as the Scottish parliament by 2011.

Born in Cardiff in 1939, Mr Thomas has been an assembly member since 1999. He is married with six children.

Janet Davies - Plaid Cymru

Janet Davies, one of four members representing the list seat of South Wales West, is Plaid Cymru's chief whip and the chair of the audit committee.

"I'm stepping down because I'm 69 in May and I want to have a few more years of enjoying myself before I drop dead," she says.

Born in 1938, Ms Davies attended Trinity College Carmarthen, University of Wales, and the Open University.

A former leader of Taff-Ely council, Ms Davies is widowed with two children.

She is Plaid Cymru's director of elections and a member of the party's national executive.