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Content Features Clive Betts-The Devolutionary Settlement i-Cambria March-April 2008 Clive Betts-The Devolutionary Settlement
Content Features Clive Betts-The Devolutionary Settlement i-Cambria March-April 2008 Clive Betts-The Devolutionary Settlement | Clive Betts-The Devolutionary Settlement |
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Page 3 of 3 Cambria has calculated that every LCO has 14 separate loops to pass through before the Assembly can start making laws by writing a Measure. There is just too much opportunity for trouble-making. If some people reckon David Jones, a Tory, is being awkward, they should check on the utterings of Labourites such as Don Touhig (Islwyn). We all know that the “English squad” comprises all three Tory MPs; equally, we also reckon that, when a forward-looking party decides fully to back the Assembly, two of the three will hop aboard and stifle their doubts. That the odd-man-out will be David Davies (Monmouth, and the ex-AM for that seat) will be no surprise. In any case, he is currently campaigning about taking skis aboard aeroplanes - which puts him more or less on a par with Lembit Öpik in campaigning terms. Cheryl Gillan, shadow Wales Secretary, will be no problem over the future of the Assembly. She describes the Assembly (non-) settlement as over-complex and unsatisfactory, and shouts down her own MPs who murmur (very loudly!) “Here, here!” when she mentions that “this party is the party of the Union” . She tells them, “We need to acknowledge genuine concern over the devolutionary settlement, and we will work constructively to find a solution to the problem.” In contrast, Mr Touhig and his fellow-English squad-die Ian Lucas (Wrexham) are bluntly opposed to a single concession to Wales (outside perhaps the Welsh language). Mr Touhig quotes Aneurin Bevan - “There are no Welsh problems, there are only problems,” adding, “It is false and pernicious to try and portray the interests of the Welsh people as different from the English people, the Scots or the Irish.” Since he is personally of Irish descent, one would ask from which part of which Irish community he is descended. Apparently, everyone wants a first-class health service, says Mr Touhig ; the Welsh priority is free prescriptions, the English is to pay over £6. Mr Lucas is opposed to Welsh higher education students paying less in Wales -presumably he would prefer they broadened their minds by studying in England. Not all Welsh Labour MPs are so narrow-minded. Yet a strong streak runs through most of them emphasising the supremacy of Parliament - and this streak can easily fall into the David Jones trap of trying to convert the Assembly into not much more than a community council-style appendage to London. Yet a way out of this constitutional mix-up is already appearing. It is even being mentioned by Welsh Tory AMs. The crucial need is to gain Scottish-style powers. This means, under current rules, a referendum. The best way to win such a referendum is to emphasise the differences between the two ends of the M4 (and using the able assistance of the English squad); point to Westminster being over-loaded with legislation from Wales; and then send up several well-based LCOs with the intention that they be rejected. The ground is then set for a real constitutional crisis, and Westminster would have caused it by crushing the legitimate demands of an elected Welsh body on a popular issue. No party in Downing Street wants to have valuable thinking and legislating time crammed out of existence by a body representing five per cent of the population. Much better to give them their freedom…                |
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