Last Thursday the Politics Society (PolSoc) held a fantastic Senedd hustings at the SU, with Plaid, Conservative, Labour, Green and Liberal Democrat candidates taking part. It was a masterclass in student led democracy, with students from across the University community submitting questions, the opportunity for student media (Gair Rhydd) to ask questions and scrutinise the candidates’ responses in real time and excellent moderating, led by an SU official and Charlie and Samira (PolSoc Social Secretary and Academic Officer, respectively). Immense credit is owed to the PolSoc Committee for organising such an event.

However, while the organisation was flawless, the ability of candidates to convince was anything but. Leaving the event, I felt more unsure on how to vote than ever before. A combination of candidate arrogance, some ineptitude and the realisation that even our more proportional voting system, still encourages tactical voting, left me more alienated than ever before.

The only thing I left the event surer of was that Reform do not care about students. They are currently in a battle with Plaid to become the largest party in this year’s Senedd and yet, they chose not to present their case to the student population. If they can’t be bothered to turn up to a 2-hour debate, how can they be trusted to represent student interests during a full day’s sitting in the Senedd?

From the first question, the tone of each candidates approach to the entire debate was perfectly summed up. Candidates were first asked what they thought the biggest issue was in this election and how we should fix it. Labour referred to the cost-of-living crisis and immediately (as they did throughout the whole debate) referred to what they had done in the past, rather than what they would do differently.

This would be an understandable approach if Labour were ahead in polls and had not pushed a new era austerity programme at a national government level. However, this came across as totally tone deaf and arrogant when Labour have had over 25 years to tackle the cost of living and yet, 30% of children in Wales now live in poverty. Plaid referred to the cost of living and the need for Wales to be more self-sufficient.

The Greens bizarrely led with bins before pivoting to housing and their policy of rent freezes, which was the focus of their responses for the entire debate. The Tories claimed “Darren Millar has quick solutions” while referring to the NHS and unemployment, as if 14 years wasn’t enough time to prevent just under 8 million people being on NHS waiting lists in England (for hospital treatment) by the end of the Sunak Administration. The Lib Dems also referred to the cost of living and the £1 bus fare introduced by Jane Dodds.

The more the debate progressed, the more my feeling of alienation began to grow. This peaked with the Labour candidate saying students were only “possibly” being exploited about housing. This showed unbelievable dismissiveness considering a recent National Student Accommodation survey found 36% of students have thought about dropping out due to the cost of rent and 41% feeling their accommodation represented poor value for money.

The more the debate progressed, the more my feeling of alienation began to grow

This lack of conviction was mirrored by Greens and Plaid calling for the abolishment and replacement of the Barnett Formula (the UK Government grant which helps fund devolved public sector) and then U-turned when pressed on how to replace Barnett. When pushed, Plaid backed down and said we only need to launch a commission, and the Greens offered a non-answer to Barnett’s replacement. If the debate was judged on purely on performance, then the Lib Dems would have ended the night as debate winners and would have comfortably secured my vote.

However, this election does not exist in a vacuum. Their performance was over-shadowed by our new electoral system which means (if the polls are correct) even in our new proportional voting system, a vote for the Lib Dems is a wasted vote. I also must wrestle with a fact that every student must contend with, the exploitation of the Plan 2 Student Loan system, that the Lib Dems and the Tories implemented.

No amount of £1 bus fees will ever bridge the gap between their promises of affordable living and an outrageous student loan system they voted for. You and I must now choose. For me, it is a choice between wasting my vote and voting Lib Dem, voting Green to keep Reform out of the last seat in Caerdydd Penarth or voting Plaid to give them enough seats to guarantee the prevention of a Reform Government.

How will your vote decide Wales’s future?