I agree with the hon. Lady is one respect, namely, that the Orders in Council procedure is unnecessarily complicated. The Assembly will need some time to get to grips with the separation of the Executive from the legislature, but a commitment should have been given to follow the Richard commission’s recommendation to move towards full legislative powers by 2011.
We want to give politicians in Wales the powers to make the decisions that will shape the future of Wales, without having to respond to the diktats of Whitehall. We want to give the people of Wales the opportunity to hold those politicians to account. Instead of that, the Bill contains a detailed, empire-building plan for the Secretary of State, under which Wales will not be governed by sound constitutional principles, but by the mood and whim of its ruler. What we are witnessing is the making of a self-proclaimed king of Wales. I have some experience of that in my constituency, where Richard Booth proclaimed himself king of Hay, and I have some understanding of a regal coup when I see one, but the Secretary of State is taking powers that are completely out of proportion and certainly unnecessary.
The truth is that Labour is split on devolution and always has been. That is why it gave birth to an emasculated Assembly in 1999, instead of a fully fledged Parliament. Six years on, Labour’s devolution child may have been finally allowed to walk, but it has been placed in such powerful restrainers that it does so through no strength of its own. Indeed, under the Government’s current proposals, the Welsh Assembly will be little more than a poodle on a retractable lead, held firmly in the Secretary of State’s grip.
The Welsh Liberal Democrats want the Assembly to be set free of Westminster meddling on devolved issues, so that it is capable of doing what is right for the interests of the people of Wales, not what is right for the Welsh Labour party. On the basis of our pro-devolution stance alone, the Government will have our support on Second Reading, as it is only reasonable to give everyone the opportunity to have a mature and open discussion about how Wales should move forward. However, let us be clear that we fundamentally disagree with many provisions in the Bill, such as the Orders in Council procedure, the Secretary of State’s role, the trigger mechanism for the referendum, the electoral system and the Assembly’s size, to name but a few. We will table a series of amendments during proceedings on the Bill to turn the Welsh Assembly into what we believe it should be—a Welsh Senedd with primary law-making powers.
Government of Wales Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Roger Williams
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Commons on Monday, 9 January 2006.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Government of Wales Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
441 c93-4 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
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