I'm not sure why Ian Lucas has chosen to comment at this point in time about the need for a review of the way devolution is working on a UK level. The terms of reference for the All Wales Convention has been discussed in full during the meeting of the establishing committee, to which sources tell me, Ian Lucas MP failed to attend on numerous occasions. Surely that was the place to make such opinions known, not via the Western Mail over a month later?
He comments that 'The All Wales Convention, by its very nature, cannot resolve these issues because it relates to Wales alone yet it is dependant upon the UK Parliament to achieve its goals.
“When it reports, we do not know the political context in which it will tell us its views. What we do know, however, is that politics in the UK as a whole will impact on whatever it does suggest.”
Yes, unfortunately, we know that any suggestions by the Convention must be accepted by the UK Parliament, but this is common knowledge, and the whole purpose of the Convention is to gather a wide variety of Welsh opinion in making key recommendations to the UK Parliament over the future set up of devolution in Wales. We are under no illusions that reform can happen in any other way, but we need to ensure that the Convention is successful, and that the people of Wales have faith in its processes.
Again, Ian Lucas is right that we will not know the political context when the Convention reports ( I assume he means that after a General election the Tories could be running the show in London) but again, we cannot use this as an excuse to water down the aspirations of the All Wales Convention and that which it has been mandated to perform. The MP protests too much, and in my opinion he is trying to find a way to water down the running, and the affect of the All Wales Convention before it has started.
It is not for us in Wales to push for anything more or anything less than a Convention that will re asses the powers of the Welsh Assembly, and create the environment where a Referendum in 2011 is clearly a reality. An investigation in to the Scotland Act is on its way, and no doubt there will be further calls to look at English regional control in the future.
We must get on with the work of the Convention here in Wales without hesitation. If the UK Parliament is uneasy with its findings and its conclusions, then so be it- democracy will be at work.
2 comments:
Lucas is a narrow little Englander desperate to strengthen the ties between England and Wales. He told a meeting in Wrexham on Friday that none of his constituents had raised the All Wales Convention with him.
How many raised the idea of getting the dragon on the Union Jack? Or putting Welsh second on railway station announcements?
The man is a joke.
How can Ian Lucas be described as a "Little Englander" when he is quite obviously an Imperialist and a British Nationalist? Such a statement is as ludicrous as calling Gordon Brown a "Little Scotlander"!
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