Why Wales wants more........

azzuri · Why Wales wants more........

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Why Wales wants more........

Amid the unseasonal St David's Day snows, on a slate-covered dockside overlooking Cardiff Bay, the Queen yesterday opened the extraordinary new home of the National Assembly for Wales.

It was a significant day for the country's devolution process, which began alongside Scotland's in 1997.

At the heart of the Senedd, a £67m box of glass and rippling wood designed by Lord Richard Rogers, is the debating chamber. To Scots eyes, it looks uncannily like a whisky still.

At the bottom of its round belly, 60 politicians sit in a tight circle, while above them, made from planks instead of copper, a 30ft funnel tapers skywards.

Half-way up the vessel a glass band allows the public to peer down on the bilingual proceedings from a darkened gallery.

Like Holyrood, the building began with high hopes, a signature architect and iconic design, only to descend into farcical delays and costs. It opens four years late and more than five times over budget.

There has even been a ding-dong over the building's name. Senedd, Welsh for senate or parliament, has been adopted, even though, as some Labour politicians point out, it is still only an assembly, or Cynulliad.
But there the familiarity ends. For while the Scottish experience of devolution has been relatively stable, in Wales it has been an unholy mess.

The Scottish Constitutional Convention had for years scoped out the basis for devolution, building up a cross-party consensus. There was no equivalent in Wales. The result was a lukewarm public reception – the yes vote for an assembly was just 50.3% on a 50% turnout compared with 74% and 60% in Scotland – and a puny set of powers. Unlike Holyrood, the assembly has never generated its own laws.

In a set-up more akin to local government, its 60 members have been left to fill in the administrative blanks on laws from Westminster and Europe, spewing regulations in a process known as secondary legislation. They can flesh out policies, but cannot pass their own primary legislation.
Despite the limited clout, the NAW has had its moments, including scrapping prescription charges; rejecting student top-up fees; free bus transport for the elderly, and appointing a children's commissioner.
Much of the programme has sprung from the desire of Rhodri Morgan, the first minister, to be more left-wing than Tony Blair, and put "clear red water" between Cardiff Bay and London. But the public's perception remains one of relative impotence, and they have stayed away from the polls. Turnout fell from 46% in 1999 to just 38% in 2003, compared with 50% in Scotland.

Only in health did the public feel the NAW had made a difference, even though NHS waiting lists were often appalling compared with England's.
Now, less than two terms into the assembly's life, the 1998 act that created it is being replaced. The Government of Wales Bill, which made its way through the Commons hours before the Queen arrived to put a royal gloss on Welsh devolution, aims to address the failings of its predecessor by granting law-making powers.

The enhanced powers will need the approval of the secretary of state, or for two-thirds of the AMs (Assembly Members) to back a public referendum on moving closer to Holyrood.

Opposition parties smell another stitch-up based on Labour MPs refusing to devolve too much power in case it triggers a cut in their own numbers, as happened after the Scotland Act.

Rhodri Morgan is refreshingly frank about Welsh Labour's desires. "We want to avoid one aspect of the Scottish model, namely the reduction in the number of Welsh MPs.

"We are trying to do this with minimal constitutional churn." In his defence, he says the bill will give far greater flexibility to the assembly, while wholesale devolution would be hard, given Wales does not have a separate legal system or control over policing.

However Lord Dafyyd Elis-Thomas, presiding officer and Plaid AM, says the Scots model is inevitable.

Ieuan Wyn Jones, Plaid leader, also looks jealously north. "We want to move to full legislative powers in one go. There's no appetite for all this 'incremental, we have to walk before we can run' Labour party nonsense."

Even the Tories, who originally opposed an assembly, want a swifter move to full legislative powers. Nick Bourne, their assembly leader, was once a leading member of the 'no' campaign. "I was wrong," he confesses.

Across the borders

Scottish Parliament -

Preceded by cross-party Scottish constitutional convention referendum result: 74% support on 60% turnout.

Opened 1999. Can pass primary legislation and vary income tax.

Has powers over the legal system, police, health service, education, transport, culture, economic development, agriculture, local government.

Holyrood opened September 2004 at cost of £431m.

129 MSPs.

Government: Labour-LibDem coalition, first minister Jack McConnell.

National Assembly for Wales -

No cross-party convention. Ground rules established by Labour instead.

Referendum result: 50.3% support on 50% turnout.

Opened 1999. Deals in developing policies on health, education, transport, culture, economic development, agriculture, local government and Welsh language.

New Assembly building opened February 2006 at cost of £67m.

60 Assembly members.

Government: Labour minority, first minister Rhodri Morgan.