Assembly Bwletin Cynulliad Issue 33 July 2011 Let the Contest Andrew RT Davies wins race to lead for Plaid begin! On the agenda this month: the Welsh Conservatives Nominations for the The Welsh Conservatives role of Plaid Cymru have elected Andrew RT party leader are to Davies AM as the new open in early January Welsh Conservative lead- 2012. The process is David Cameron addresses er in the National Assem- estimated to last ten the 4th Assembly bly. Mr Davies secured weeks and the new his place as leader with leader will be an- The legislative future for 53.1% of the members’ nounced in time for the party’s Spring Wales votes in a party election Conference. that had a 49% turnout. John Osmond discusses the Current Plaid leader, State of the Union In his acceptance speech at the Swalec stadium in Cardiff, Mr Davies Ieuan Wyn Jones AM, announced his said that he has been “charged with a great decision to stand responsibility” and used his speech to promise down following the a strong opposition to the current Welsh La- disappointing results Assembly Bwletin Cynulliad is a bour Government by encouraging his party to of May’s 2011 Welsh joint initiative between Grayling offer a “real alternative to the failed Labour Assembly Election. ideology in Wales”. During his speech, Mr Mr Jones asked and the Institute of Welsh Affairs Davies also paid tribute to former Welsh Con- Plaid’s national Chair servative leader Nick Bourne and to his oppo- to hold a leadership Every month we aim to bring nent, Nick Ramsay. contest after plans you the ABC of Welsh politics for a party review Mr. Ramsay spoke supportively of Andrew RT Davies, saying “I’m pleased because the were finalised but did For information on ABC, please agree to stay in post group has an excellent leader in Andrew and for the time being. contact: I’m sure he’ll do his best to take this group to future success”. When Mr. Davies later an- [email protected] or Mr Jones said that he nounced his new Shadow Cabinet, defeated looks forward to “an [email protected] rival Mr. Ramsay was named as Shadow Min- important contest for ister for Business, Enterprise and Technology. Plaid Cymru… With the individuals we have, it is clear that the future of the party will lie in good hands”. Prime Minister leaves Assembly Members wanting Tuesday 12 July marked the first Prime Ministerial address to the National Assembly since former PM Tony Blair visited the Senedd in 2001. Mr Cameron began his speech by praising Welsh culture and demonstrating recognition for the industrial contributions that Wales has made to the United Kingdom and the rest of the World. Despite this, the Prime Minister expressed his concerns for the nation, stating that whilst he consid- ers himself an advocate for Wales he cannot ignore ‘the huge challenges that Wales faces today’” namely the high levels of poverty, benefit dependency and unemploy- ment that affects the lives of the Welsh public. Mr Cameron spoke briefly on budget funding for Wales and pledged to set up a com- mission, similar to the Calman Commission in Scotland, to look at a case for further devolution in Wales, but to the disappointment of some Welsh politicians disclosed little information on how this commission might be implemented. The Prime Minister insisted that the main solution to the problems facing the Welsh people would be what Mr. Cameron called “real devolution”, the reform of public services. The Prime Minister expressed his view that the private sector in Wales is too de- pendent on the State and encouraged Wales to follow in the footsteps of the UK Government and match the decisions reached at Westminster to “modernise” public services so that the “state monopoly” over them could be opened up. Mr Cameron’s address was met with varied responses. Whilst the Prime Minister was welcomed and applauded by the Welsh Conservative AMs and some Welsh Liberal Democrats, the reception by the Labour and Plaid Cymru benches was far less enthu- siastic, and a notable silence presided over the Siambr as the Prime Minister made his exit. Plaid Cymru leader and former Depu- ty First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones AM gave a less than favourable reaction to the Prime Minister’s address, criticising Mr Cameron for being “disappointingly vague”. Whilst the lecture-like tone of Cameron’s address left some AMs wanting, the proposal for a new commission to look at how Wales is funded was looked upon optimistically by Carwyn Jones AM, who “welcomed the element in his speech that talked about setting up a commission” and expressed hopes of being able to proceed quickly “to make sure that commission begins as soon as possible in the autumn”. However, the First Minister spoke less favourably of Mr Cameron’s recommendation for public service reform in Wales, responding: “I think that was not the wisest part of the speech. It would be the equivalent of me going and lectur- ing the UK Cabinet on where they are going wrong”. Compiled by Grayling Seeking legislative light at the end of the Assembly funnel First Minister Carwyn Jones AM unveiled his Welsh Labour Government’s Leg- islative Programme on 12 July, over two months after May’s Welsh General Election. Mr Jones asserted it is "the most detailed programme of government to the assembly" since it was created. Nevertheless, Welsh Liberal Democrat Peter Black AM claimed it was “astonishing” that the legislative proposals took so long to “cobble together”. Arguably the most talked about of the 10 pieces of legislation proposed is to create an opt-out system of organ donation. The Welsh Government also wants a bill for a duty on local authorities to maintain key cycle paths, as well as bills addressing food hygiene, school standards, social services, housing and tenan- cy law, local authority collaboration and planning system transparency. Mr Jones, whose Welsh Labour Party is one seat short of a majority in the As- sembly, made overtures for cross-party support. “We want to make sure that we work with other parties when it comes to the details of the bills”, he said. Re- sponding, interim Welsh Conservative leader Paul Davies AM, said: "We look forward to the Welsh Labour Government shedding the tribalism of the past”. The Welsh Labour government may struggle to pass their proposed legislation. Plaid Cymru, with Ieuan Wyn Jones AM set to step down as leader at the turn of next year, could rebound more positively from a poor election result, and should the Welsh Lib- eral Democrats feel that they were kicked when they were down during the disqualification affair, they may too decide to kick back. If in the current political climate tribalism remains, Labour’s opponents will ‘opt-out’ of donating whole-hearted support to their legislative plans. Compiled by Grayling Act of Union John Osmond listens in to a debate about the sovereignty of Wales For the first time in nearly 40 years reporting on political life in Wales, at the weekend I listened in to a discussion about Welsh sovereignty and what it means. It happened at the National Museum in Cathays Park during a debate about the Act of Union. Four politicians from each of the parties had been brought together to say a few words about what the Acts of Union between 1536 and 1543 meant to them. Mark Drakeford, Labour AM for Cardiff West, referred to a lecture given by Professor Scott Greer, an American expert on devolution and health, delivered in both Edinburgh and Cardiff, entitled “Scotland is good, but Wales is better”. The interesting thing, he said, was that in neither place was Professor Greer’s message believed. “It tells us something about a cast of mind that continues to flow from 1536,” Mark Drake- ford said. Baroness Jenny Randerson, late of the Liberal Democrat benches in the National Assembly, said the Act of Union had created an anglicised political class in Wales. However, over the last few decades devolution had put this in re- verse. “We have created a Welsh ruling class and laid the foundations of a modern democracy,” she said. Suzy Davies, the new Conservative AM for South West Wales, said the Act of Union must have had some good points since it had lasted for centuries without challenge, until the industrial revolution prompted a demand for repre- sentation by the working class. Since then she thought Wales had suffered from both socialism and Thatcherism. Devolution had been accepted in the 1997 referendum as a pluralistic alternative to both. Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, Plaid Cymru’s AM for Meirionnydd, insisted that it should not be called the ‘Act of Union’, since that implied there were two parties to it. “There was no such thing as a constitutional union between England and Wales, so what future is there to that union?” he asked. However, the meeting really became interesting when during questions it focused on the sovereignty of Wales. Vaughan Roderick, Welsh Affairs Editor with BBC Wales sparked it when he asked where sovereignty lay in the age of devolution. He pointed out that in Spain it would be unconstitutional for one of its constitutional regions, such as Cataluña or the Basque Country, to secede from the State. In the United States a civil war had been fought over se- cession. Yet in the United Kingdom, the state was calmly accepting that if the Scots voted yes in their independence referendum they had every right to secede. He wondered whether Wales could be considered differently from Scotland where the 1707 Act of Union was more authentically a coming together of two sovereign states, if largely involuntarily on the part of the Scots.