There are times when I almost start to feel sorry for Glyn Davies. He really is trying very hard to sell the message that his party is becoming less hostile to further devolution, but it seems that every time he says anything, one or other of his colleagues opens his mouth, and undermines all his efforts.
This week, it’s been the turn of David Jones MP, aided and abetted by Stephen Crabbe MP, on the Welsh Affairs Select Committee. They decided to challenge the first of the Assembly LCO’s to make it to London. The former objected on the basis that the Assembly was daring to ask for power to legislate in a specific area, without telling their masters in London exactly what they might do with the powers. The latter seemed concerned that the result would be that things might be different in Wales. The whole principle of LCO's, to say nothing of the Government of Wales Act 2006, seems to have completely passed them by.
People like Glyn can talk until they're blue in the face; but what Jones and Crabbe have proved, yet again, is that, on Devolution, the Tories as a party still simply don't get it.
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4 comments:
A remark made by G-WF is particularly appropriate here, and it is that these Tory politicians are Welshmen in Englishmen's clothing. When you see them in their politician's suits and tweed jackets you see what I mean. The LCO's are decisions democratically made in Wales, for the needs of Wales. As I recently blogged:
The purpose of the Wales Office is to scrutinise the Legislative Competence Orders from the Welsh Assembly, and to funnel them through Westminster in order that approval may be given to the Assembly decisions which have already been agreed within Wales. Thus, all laws passed by the Assembly have to be given permission by Peter Hain and the Westminster government before they are granted and the policies delivered to the people of Wales.
All this is quite unnecessary, as the government is now conducted competently by the Welsh National Assembly. This was the intention of devolution in any case. There is no need for the Wales Office to interfere in the governing of Wales, and it is quite superfluous. By almost doubling the amount of funding it receives the Treasury is wasting taxpayers money, which could be better spent by providing services within Wales, particularly as money is tight, due to the excesses and mismanagement of resources during the ten years that Labour has been in office.
So when will these politicians, of whichever persuasion, roll up their sleeves and become Welshmen in Welshmen's clothing?
Actually, you're wrong. Seems to me they "get it" perfectly.
Alan,
I'm not convinced that obsessing about thinking in terms which are either 'English' and 'Welsh' actually helps anything. Nor am I convinced that looking at the way politicians dress reveals much about either their place of birth or their political party.
I start from a willingness to believe that all our politicians genuinely think that they are supporting the best interests of Wales as they see them. I don't quite see how telling some of them that they're not Welsh enough helps them to see the error of their ways.
Metaphorically-speaking
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