Waiting for the referendum result and playing it by ear after the fact will be bad for Wales.
I agree with Jonathan Edwards MP that the Welsh Government should be preparing for Scottish independence and putting forward a coherent vision for the Welsh nation’s constitutional future if Scottish independence happens.
Whatever one's views on Scottish Independence, it is something that could happen within the next few years. Even if Welsh Labour and Welsh Liberal Democrats were willing to bet the national debt on Scotland remaining within the Union, common sense says that Wales should prepare for the effect that Scottish independence would have on Wales if it comes to pass. Not doing so is true fantasy politics.
Peter Black, in condemning Jonathan Edwards for raising the need for the National Assembly to consider the possibility of a YES vote says:
I do know that the most urgent issues facing the Welsh Government today are the economy, an under-performing education system and the health service. Why would any sane minister take his or her eye off those problems to worry about esoteric constitutional issues?"
The ConDem government is only a year and a half old. Since its inception we have had a referendum on the powers of the National Assembly, a referendum on UK voting reform, an act that guarantees a referendum on changes to Britain's relationship with the EU, a Fixed Term Parliament, an act that reduces the number of Welsh MPs by a quarter, proposals for the election of Police Commissioners and withdrawing police control from local authorities, the establishment of the Silk Commission, and Britain being on the cusp of getting kicked out of the EU – that's a hell of a lot of constitutional change from a government who's supporters believe that constitutional matters are esoteric!
Why have the ConDems perused this wholesale constitutional change?
Because they know that constitutional change isn't esoteric – The constitution is the bedrock on which economic, social and ethical issues stand.
Peter Black's opposition to constitutional change for Wales, other than the wholesale changes imposed by the ConDems, is, in reality, an opposition to Wales having a better economic, social and ethical future based on a an alternative constitution to that offered by the corrupt UKanian State that he supports.
Some great points Alwyn. I have said much the same thing today.
ReplyDelete"The constitution" is the core of everything politicians are allowed to do.
Peter Black has a bizarre gripe against Plaid when it comes to even discussing this issue. I think it's because he senses a dislocation between having a commitment to constitutional change as a Lib Dem, and the fact that Plaid are the ones driving constitutional debate in Wales.
On the basis that it takes one to know one Peter Black should be a true aficionado when it comes to the subject of irrelevance!
ReplyDeleteIndependence for Wales sounds like a great idea. But where will we send all the Welsh people?
ReplyDeleteCoc oen yw Peter Black! Peter Black is an irrelevance even within his own party - he was greeting Cameron's European hissy fit at as great leadership at the very same time as the leaders of his own party, in Wales and London, were disowning it! He's turning into a bit of a Lemit Opick.
ReplyDelete