Devolution - Ten Years On

Whilst all the coverage surrounding Welsh devolution first ten years surrounds its achievements, I think the real question is when should we move to primary law making powers.

The 1997 referendum, and the subsequent National Assembly which was set up 10 years ago, wasn’t devolution at all. The system which was set up merely democratised the existing powers of the Welsh Office. Instead of having a Secretary of State (often a non Wales based MP) with sole command, responsibility was awarded to 60 politicians directly elected by the people of Wales. Arguably the great mistake of the 97 referendum yes campaign was to play solely on national fervour rather than point out that the real result of a Yes vote in 97 would have been to democratise powers that were already in the hands of the Secretary of State. How could anyone vote against that?

The 2006 Act, although lacking in any real ambition in terms of moving the constitutional question forward with its cumbersome and convoluted system of transferring the ability to pass law to the National Assembly, did set some pretty important precedents. Firstly, the Executive was formally split from the legislature. Wales now has a Government of its own with a distinct legislature. The Act also via the LCO system, does allow the National Assembly to pass laws put forward by the Executive or backbench AMs. The Petition system also allows an innovative form of participatory democracy whereby the people of Wales can effectively present their own laws to the legislature. Although the 2006 Act therefore was a wasted opportunity, constitutionally it was a significant step forward with enormous ramifications for Welsh democracy.

With that in mind moving forward to Part 4, whereby the National Assembly would have powers to pass laws within current devolved fields is a no-brainer. The real argument is not as the All Wales convention is presenting it in terms of step by step as opposed to a all in one go approach; but rather do you want a complicated system that just doesn’t work or a system whereby the Welsh legislature can pass laws without the London veto. Again who (apart from self interested MPs) would want to vote for the current arrangements?

Although a commitment to hold a referendum before 2011 is a key plank of the One Wales Plaid – Labour coalition agreement, Labour in typical party interest have an agreed position of supporting Part 4, but after 2011. This will enable them to keep their warring factions united whilst enabling them to portray that they managed to stitch up Plaid.

With the onset of a Tory landslide next year, with possibly Labour in opposition for at least three terms at UK level, they have to decide whether they want to be at the mercy of a Tory dominated House of Commons interfering in the Government of Wales’ conflicting programme or are they going to bite the bullet and put the communities of Wales first. The way in which Labour MPs on the Select committee have deliberately skewed the LCO system only serves to indicate the chaos a Tory dominated Welsh Affairs Select Committee could have on the democratically mandated WAG programme.

When the gun for the Labour leadership election in Wales finally blasts off, this is the only real important question. It would be a travesty if Huw and Carwyn (and hopefully Edwina) were allowed to side step an issue they will all be desperately trying to avoid talking about in order to avoid party splits.

As for the question when should we move to Part 4; the triggers have to have gone through before the General Election leaving a referendum vote to be held on the date of the next National Assembly elections.

The Lib Dem Dilemma in Wales

Can I just start this post by stating I think Kirsty Williams has got off to a good start since taking over from Mike German. Sure there have been a few blunders, the project 31 statement lacks any credibility, but on the plus side indicated her ambitions. And the recent PPB performance was awful.

However, I think she's on to something in the way she has positioned her party as the anti Cardiff Bay Bubble party. Appart from AMs, the political media, public affairs professionals and civil servants - the Welsh square mile is a rather abstract and distant place to the rest of Wales. The fact that Plaid, who cleverly positioned themselves as a Wales wide party rather than an establishment party in 2007, have gone native since entering the Government of Wales makes this a very profitable division line for the Lib Dems.

However the Lib Dems seem to me to be cornering themselves into a difficult stranglehold of their own making. The clear electoral gains for the Lib Dems are to be made from scavenging the decaying Labour political corpse during the next two years. However, project Kirsty is all about re-establishing a Lib-Lab Government in Cardiff Bay.

Hence her political attacks have been primarily aimed at the Welsh Government's junior partner where in reality they are only in direct electoral competition with Plaid in Ceredigion.

The inevitable question therefore is why bother voting Lib Dem if their sole option after 2011 is to keep Labour in power.

The rise of the BNP?

As we approach the Euro elections, media focus seems to be concentrating on the possibility of the first BNP Euro MP being elected in the North West England region. The Observer notes yesterday that the far right only needs 80,000 votes to win a seat in Brussels in an area covering Manchester and Liverpool. The Independent reports today that perhaps the best way of keeping the UK fascist free in terms of professional elected representatives is to vote Green in June - if you live in the North West.

This blog has already focused on the manner in which the body politic in Wales and the UK are increasingly becoming detached from the electorate. The human cost of the recession is devastating, and the more our elected representatives squabble over petty point scoring and their expenses the greater the opportunity for the anti politics of the far right and their message of hate. In reality, if Nick Griffin and his thugs stopped blaming minorities for the troubles of the country, and turned their attention on the political elite they'd be on to a winner. The rise of Nazism in Germany wasn't fuelled on hatred of Jews and Slavs, rather a coordinated attack by both the extreme right and left on the failings of the Weimar Republic.

New Labour, in becoming a Shadow Tory party have opened up a political vacuum which the far right are positioned to exploit. Even in the last Assembly Elections in Wales, the fascists nearly won a seat on the North Wales region. If the BNP entered the political mainstream, it would be a tombstone on the epitaph of the 'project'.

Whiter than White Politicians

There's nothing qiute like politicians who claim they are above nasty politics. In a recent post Bethan Jenkins, Plaid AM for South West Wales led an impassioned attack against Alun Davies' somewhat ill judged personal attack on Blaenau Gwent AM Trish Law.



The Chwythwr has it on very good authority that Plaid spin doctors are convinced that Bethan was the source who questioned the mental capability of her own Leader in this nameless attack.


So much for never engaging in the dark arts eh Bethan.

Pigs in the Trough

Isn't it ironic during the week that swine flu became the hottest topic of conversation for Britons, the hot political topic at Westminster was MPs expenses. Whilst the British parties with normal political rules of engagement in mind have tried to claim victory following this weeks Parliamentary deliberations, the rest of us who have to work for a living look on in disbelief.

At a time when people are worried about losing their jobs and homes, our politicians priorities seem only to be concerned with making sure they don't lose their lucrative financial perks for being our elected representatives. After all, who are we to condone the use of public money for property speculation; for paying family members vastly inflated wages;and a John Lewis catalogue list to furnish their publicly funded second homes. Not to mention a gold plated pension scheme enough to make mere mortals drool.

What's for sure is that with the FOI victory over all expenses at Westminster due to come out in July, things are about to get far worse. It's a well know fact in the drinking holes of Westminster village that MPs favourite conversation is to compete on the most ridiculous purchase they have been able to make on their expenses. The credibility of politics could be fatally undermined.

Not that our AMs are immune from abuse. Most have luxury flats when the rest of us have to commute those same distances; £2k sofas; i pods not to speak of the Assembly's 'village idiot' Nick Ramsay posing for a Western Mail photo shoot with his new Sony LCD TV. we've even had AMs bullying the amending of rules so that they can continue to claim for a second home despite living within easy commuting distance of their place of work.

THe Government at UK level and the National Assembly Commission in the very least should in the first instance take immediate retrospective action to reclaim all property bought by current elected members, so that any equity incurred at the end of a political career returns to public funds.

Here lies an opportunity for the National Assembly and proponents of devolution. A definite act to clean up abuse of expenses once and for all would generate substantial public support, and the let the MPs squabble indefinitely in London as they try to protect their income supplements.

The Long Slow Death of New Labour

Is it me or has watching politics become a painful experience. The power ebbing away from Gordon Brown this week has left his authority totally shot to pieces. Blairites and the left within the Labour party smell blood, and lets face it, when you have a former Cabinet Minister openly saying he is ashamed of his party and his Government, things can hardly get any worse.

With the country in the heart of a deep and damaging economic downturn, now is not the time for a Government without any sense of purpose and direction. Brown as the architect of this recession with his lust for the phantom finance of casino capitalism has ‘banked’ his and his party’s credibility on a return to economic growth before the General Election next year. To achieve this he is yet again trying to fuel the housing and personal debt bubbles that brought about the recession, and bankrupted the state to preserve a discredited banking system and the jobs of the super rich who got us into this mess.

The problem for Joe public is that the likely political beneficiaries are even more zealot followers of Thatcherism. If Brown was a son of Thatcher, Cameron and Osbourne are her even more faithful grandkids. What a sham of a political system we’ve got when none of the main parties can offer a different economic and social model.

As for the Prime Minister, will someone do the poor man a favour and put him out of his misery.