The Secretary of State is right to say that, throughout, the Liberal Democrats have sought to improve the Bill, rather than to block it, and it is in that context that we have had the dialogue. In the context of what he is saying now, will he accept and register the fact that we still feel unease because we cannot be guaranteed that any future Secretary of States for Wales will necessarily be sympathetic to the referendum? How can he feel confident that the arrangement that he has constructively laid out will nevertheless not offer an opportunity for, for example, an anti-devolutionary Conservative Secretary of State for Wales to prevent the referendum from taking place, given that he is not giving us a time-limited period by which the Secretary of State must necessarily have laid the referendum before the House?
Government of Wales Bill
Proceeding contribution from
Lembit Opik
(Liberal Democrat)
in the House of Commons on Tuesday, 18 July 2006.
It occurred during Debate on bills on Government of Wales Bill.
Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
449 c234 
Session
2005-06
Chamber / Committee
House of Commons chamber
Subjects
Librarians' tools
Timestamp
2024-04-22 00:36:57 +0100
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