Government of Wales Bill

A referendum is not necessary. Although the Assembly is very unpopular in Wales from time to time—indeed, people blame it for many of the ills of Wales—that is a misrepresentation because the National Assembly Government are responsible for the delivery of services and it is they whom the people should criticise. In fact, one of the plus points of the Bill is the separation of the Executive and the legislature. The people of Wales will better understand the way that the Assembly works and they will be brought closer to the Assembly. When I travel around Wales, I get the feeling that the National Assembly Government, Powys county council, Westminster and the European Parliament are not very popular. It is very difficult to have a legislature that is popular, but that does not necessarily mean that the people of Wales want to get rid of the Assembly. In my view, they want to promote the Assembly’s powers so that it can better deal with the problems faced by the people and the nation of Wales. I have never thought of devolution as a system for becoming insular and apart from the United Kingdom. I believe that devolution is about developing systems to deliver services that are best suited to the area, and that those systems can be shared with other regions and nations in the United Kingdom so that they benefit as well. I was a little disappointed when the hon. Member for Monmouth (David T.C. Davies) almost insinuated that people must be Conservatives to be Unionists or that people could not support devolution and be Unionists. I certainly am a Unionist, and I believe in the United Kingdom, which, by its very nature, is more than one nation—something that we should all bear in mind. Welsh Liberal Democrats have always been a pro-devolution party, and we have consistently argued for a Welsh Senedd—we did so before 1998, and we do so today. We support a way forward that gives Wales more governance and more control over its own future, but, above all, good governance. Our party wholeheartedly endorses the recommendations of the Richard commission, which was effectively the most comprehensive constitutional consultation that was ever carried out in Wales. We support Lord Richard’s view that Wales deserves a status equal to Scotland’s, with powers over primary legislation, and that a larger Assembly of 80 Members is needed to cope with those extended powers. All the Members should be elected using a single-transferable-vote system. Listening to the hon. Member for Monmouth and considering the difficulties that the Assembly may face in dealing with further legislation, it seems to me that the experience of the Scottish Parliament should be taken into consideration. With in excess of 120 Members, they find that all their committee time is taken up with legislation and that it is very difficult to carry out the necessary scrutiny and policy development. Of course, it is typical of the Government to embark on a lengthy and costly consultation at taxpayers’ expense only to ignore the expert advice. Such things can be said of the current consultation on the restructuring of the police force in Wales.