Assembly Bwletin Cynulliad

Issue 27

October 2010 Another bonfire Strength in numbers of the quangos

A week before the Ahead of the Corporate Spending Review UK Government pub- On the agenda this month: that will take place on 20th October the lishes its Compre- devolved administrations in Wales, Scot- hensive Spending land and Northern Ireland have joined to- gether to oppose the Coalition Government Review the Cabinet Office formally pub- in its drive to cut spending. lished the full list of  When is official status not official public bodies that are status? In a joint declaration condemning the UK being considered for Government‟s spending plans, Carwyn abolition or amal- Jones, Alex Salmond and Peter Robinson gamation. have criticised the Coalition‟s cuts as „too  Out with the old and in with the fast and too deep‟. The Deputy First Minis- „new‟ Notably for Wales, ters and Finance Ministers in all three coun- amongst the changes tries also gave their support to the joint dec- being proposed, is laration. Recent reports suggest that the that the future budg-  Can England join in the devolu- spending ets of S4C will now tion process? cuts could be directly set by the cost Wales Secretary of State for 52,000 jobs. Culture, Media & Sport.

Speaking after the announcement, Ieu- an Wyn Jones AM Assembly Bwletin Cynulliad is a joint initiative between Grayling said that “it was clear that the Tory and the Institute of Welsh Affairs and Lib Dem govern- ment in London is Every month we aim to bring you the ABC of Welsh politics intent on condemning For information on ABC, please contact [email protected] or [email protected] When is official status not official status?

This month saw the publication of over 100 amendments to the Proposed Welsh Language (Wales) Measure. The Minister for Heritage moved a motion to approve the General Principles of the Proposed Measure on 21 October. This followed a long and torturous LCO process and scrutiny of the Proposed Measure by a Legislation Committee of the National Assembly for Wales, with evidence received from a range of organisations; the private sector, voluntary groups, experts and language activists. After this motion, the floodgates appeared to open and the Welsh Assembly Government began tweaking and amending one of its key pieces of legislation.

Whilst the passage of legislation is never an easy journey in Wales, the Welsh Language LCO and the subsequent Measure had it tougher than most. Now that the Minister for Herit- age is in the final stages of taking the Measure through to Royal Assent he still finds himself up against the election timeline (the Welsh Assembly Government pledged in One Wales: A progressive agenda for the government of Wales to bring forward a “new Assembly Measure to confirm official status for both Welsh and English, linguistic rights in the provision of ser- vices and the establishment of the post of Language Commissioner”) and up against a num- ber of Welsh language campaigners and activists. The Minister for Heritage has repeatedly stated that the Measure will “make a clear statement confirming the official status on the Welsh language and how it is given legal effect”. However, the Chair of Cymdeithas Yr Iaith, Menna Machreth said that there was a need for “official status and rights for people to use Welsh”. She noted that the Welsh Ministers had not yet delivered on that principle and it appeared that the “government are using the rhetoric of campaigners just to show they have ticked the box when they haven‟t actually delivered”.

The Welsh Language LCO and the General Principles of the Proposed Measure were voted on by all the Members of the National Assembly for Wales and it is generally accepted that there is a need for a new and updated piece of legislation on the Welsh language. However, given the extremely truncated legislative timeline in light of three trips to the ballot box next year, the Spring Conference season and the first formal dissolution of the National Assembly for Wales next year, it remains to be seen if the Plaid Cymru Minister for Heritage and his colleagues can deliver on one of the integral pieces of legislation for Plaid Cymru grass roots campaigners and activists.

Compiled by Grayling

Out with the old and in with the ‘new’

Despite the fact that none of the eight Welsh MPs who put their names forward for election to the Shadow Cabinet received enough support from Labour members, a number made it onto the front bench of Ed Miliband MP‟s „new generation‟ Shadow Cabinet. Earlier this month, the now Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Peter Hain MP, said that it was due to the large number of MPs from Wales standing in the election which had prevented any being selected in the ballot.

As party leader, Ed Miliband had the right to appoint a number of MPs who did not make it through the ballot. Mr. Miliband chose to appoint a host of Welsh former Ministers to his ‟new generation‟ Shadow Cabinet, in addition to Peter Hain, Wayne David MP is now the Shadow Europe Minister and Delyn MP David Hanson now takes the position as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Alan Johnson. A full list of the appointments is included below.

 Peter Hain MP - Shadow Secretary of State for Wales  Owen Smith MP – Shadow Under Secretary of State for Wales  Wayne David MP – Shadow Europe Minister  David Hanson MP – Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury  Kevin Brennan MP – Department for Education  Chris Bryant MP –Shadow Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform in the Justice Department  Nia Griffith MP – Department for Business, Innovation and Skills  Ian Lucas MP – Department for Business, Innovation and Skills  Huw Irranca-Davies MP – Department for Energy and Climate Change  Mark Tami MP – Whips Office Compiled by Grayling Can England join in the devolution process?

Syd Morgan and Alan Sandry argue that it’s time for a ‘Rainbow’ alliance in UK politics

For many observers, the 2010 UK parliamentary election was dominated by the Prime Ministerial television debates. Politicians, media pundits and aca- demics agree this mini-series changed the election dynamics. A by-product was a lowered profile for parties other than the Big Three.

The spat over the 5 May 2011 date for the UK referendum on the Alternative Vote for the next Westminster elections seems to confirm a reactionary, UK centralizing tendency, despite devolution. The electoral system for the next Westminster elections will overshadow the vote over who will run the three territorial administrations.

This scenario presents decentralists of all stripes with a new dilemma. How can they get their political messages through the apparently narrowing UK public space? If decentralist voices are to be given fair hearing in future UK elections, is it not time for the creation of an electoral „third force‟? There are already building blocks. Scottish and Welsh nationalists are members of a joint Westminster group and often find common cause with parties in the north of Ireland.

However, Westminster‟s parliamentary arithmetic demands something more: We need a UK state-wide alliance be- yond the three devolved territories of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. We need to bring England into the de- centralist frame.

Although revolutionary in Anglo-British political circles, coalitions are demonstrably normal. On these islands, we have the admittedly special case of the Belfast government, Labour and Plaid Cymru in Cardiff (preceded by Labour – Liberal Democrat), and a minority SNP government in Edinburgh. The UK itself now has a Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition.

If a new UK „third force‟ is to be constructed, we need to ask a strategic question. Can it include Labour? Despite the three-year One Wales government, we see no signs of the two-party coalition‟s mostly shared ideology replicating itself elsewhere in the UK, at any level. One Wales seems to be a one-off, which may not endure after 2011. Similar- ly, Plaid‟s repeated attempts to embrace mostly Labour–linked UK trade unions have yielded no concrete gains for the party, either financially or electorally, and this is despite many shared policies. The elephant in the room is British nationalism. This visceral Labour view surfaced during the brief talks about a possible Rainbow government in June following the May general election. You could almost feel the horror of many MPs at the prospect of working with „regionalists‟.

Despite its Welsh façade and public proclivity, it can also be argued that Cardiff Bay is in essence Westminster writ small. Its agenda seems narrowly British, with England as the main comparator. The much fairer and more beneficial prism of other small states or comparable European nations is mostly shunned.

On the European mainland, new non-sectarian political alliances are increasingly in evidence. So what are the chances of this happening across the UK?

A new UK-wide pre-election „Rainbow Alliance‟ would, of course, have to recognize, and embrace, the distinct na- tional entities within the UK. It would also have to be based on a common programme, openly arrived at. It would make its internal disagreements open and transparent, on the assumption that the electorate can „take it‟. And if such an alliance elected a joint female and male leadership, that would send a strong message of change.

Simple cries of „Tories Out‟ do not take us much further given that all three main UK parties embrace Anglo- American capitalism, a centralised state and a failing foreign and defence policy. If UK voters are to have a choice of an alternative government, progressive thinkers and political practitioners need to do some radical new thinking.

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