Democracy in Action

Two blog posts separated by time but worth considering together:

Devolution Lite from Adam price MP comments on how the Westminster Welsh Affairs Committee has dealt with a Legislative Competence Order to:

revoke tenants’ automatic right to buy council properties in order to protect and enhance the stock of social housing, particularly in areas of high housing need.

Basically they have said that the Assembly can not have this competence unless they agree to use it in the way that the Welsh Affairs Committee dictates

Gray's Monotony explains the constitution of the Welsh Affairs Committee:

the Conservatives' strength in parts of England means that they are awarded a greater number of positions on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee than parties performing as well, if not better, in Wales alone.

So a committee that doesn't reflect how Wales votes has a veto over an Assembly that the people of Wales vote for ...

... and they call that Democracy!

Cross posted to Wales First

The Economy and the Referendum

Since the beginning of the so called credit crunch, those who oppose Welsh self determination have found a new refrain: Constitutional issues are totally unimportant in the current financial climate.

On Friday Paul Murphy said:

Voters won’t thank us for putting a referendum before economic worries

On Saturday an anonymous commentator on this blog said:

unbelievable! world is going into meltdown and all you care about is giving more power to those wankers to bugger Wales up even more!

Today a journalist asking me about the Facebook YES Campaign raised a similar question. Should you be bringing this campaign on now, when people are more worried about the financial situation than the devolution settlement?

Draig, made an important point in responding to the crude nonny:

This isn't just a financial crisis, it's a constitutional crisis too.

And Draig is right. The financial crisis means that the Assembly needs as many powers as it can get to help Wales survive the consequences of the credit crunch.

Those of us with long memories will remember the comments of Eddie George, then Governor of the Bank of England who said in 1998 that unemployment in the north of England was a price worth paying to help the London economy. As far as Westminster is concerned unemployment, stagnation and depression in Wales would also be a price worth paying for recovery in the city. Wales needs a strong Assembly NOW to ensure that we aren't forced to pay that price again.

Facebook YES Campaign

Jim Dunckley and I have started a campaign on Facebook in support of calling a referendum on law making powers for the National Assembly and supporting a Yes vote:

Wales First/ Cymru Gyntaf is a non-party political group calling for a "Yes" vote in the upcoming referendum on full lawmaking powers for the Welsh Assembly.
Our aim is to use the internet to mobilise popular support for a full Parliament for Wales.
Let's give our first democratically elected forum here in Wales the power it needs to put Wales FIRST.

With a No campaign already getting publicity, despite only having half a dozen members, it is important that a Yes campaign exists to oppose them.

With some supporters of Devolution dithering and wondering if a referendum could be won it is important that there is a grass roots support campaign to show that there is support for putting Wales first and an enthusiasm for the Yes cause.

As John Dixon said a few weeks ago the wait and see approach being proposed by some has risks "a risk that we wait until the polls show that the argument has been clearly won before we start to present the case; and I don't understand how anyone would ever expect to decisively win any argument without putting the case."

If you support a yes vote in a referendum, I would be grateful if you joined the Wales First campaign, asked your friends to join and gave the campaign a mention on your blogs, web-pages, forums etc


http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=40044911971