Government of Wales Bill

I am sure that we are all looking forward to the end of this long groundhog day, so I shall be brief. Ministers, I am sure, hope that the eventual passing of the Bill will be greeted in Wales with a millennium stadium-style roar of approval, but I believe that it will be greeted with an empty millennium dome-style wall of silence and lack of interest. We should not forget that nearly two thirds of the Welsh electorate did not participate in the last Assembly elections two and a half years ago, and I see nothing in the Bill that will deal with that problem. I want devolution to work. I am one of the Conservative Members who are open-minded about how the devolution settlement might be extended and deepened in years to come. What the people of Wales signed up to in the referendum, by the thinnest margins, was Executive devolution, not legislative devolution. What the Bill gives them is legislative devolution in all but name, through a piece of constitutional trickery. That is why, with a heavy heart, I shall vote against the Bill this evening. I want the Assembly to work—I want it to be an expression of a vibrant political culture in Wales. However, I consider the Bill to be deeply flawed.