Tomorrow’s Wales will be hosting a panel debate at the National Eisteddfod next week on the topic ‘The Devolution Journey - Where Next?’.

The event will take place on Thursday 7th August between 11.00am - 12.00pm at the WCVA stand on the Eisteddfod Maes. The debate will be chaired by Tomorrow’s Wales’ Chair The Most Rev. Dr Barry Morgan, Archbishop of Wales, and on the panel will be:

Geraint Talfan Davies, Chair of the WNO and IWA;
Cynog Dafis, former Plaid Cymru AM and MP;
Meri Huws, Chair of the Welsh Language Board;
The Rev. Aled Edwards, Chief Executive of Cytûn and member of the All Wales Convention.

The event will provide an opportunity to explore issues of importance for the devolution process over the coming period and will include opportunities for the audience to express their views and question the panelists.

We hope very much that you will be able to join us. Translation facilities will be available.

On Wednesday last week, Tomorrow’s Wales co-hosted an event with the WCVA on their stand at the Royal Welsh Show.

The theme of the event was ‘particpation’ and Tomorrow’s Wales Executive Member Fran Targett, Director of CAB Cymru, spoke about the work of the movement and of her experiences of engaging with the Assembly through her work with CAB.

You can see what Fran had to say here.

The third in a series of devolution briefing papers published by Tomorrow’s Wales puts the spotlight on the nature of the ‘primary legislative powers’ that the National Assembly for Wales would get after a ‘Yes’ vote in a referendum. The ‘Primary Legislative Powers’ For Wales after a Referendum paper highlights the differences between the current settlement and what is on offer under Part 4 of the Government of Wales Act 2006, and also looks at how the Assembly’s new powers would differ from those of the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly. 

As Wales gears up for a constitutional debate through the All-Wales Convention, the Devolution Briefing Papers series covers a wide range of issues relevant to the future of devolution in Wales and are intended to inform the debate. Previous papers have looked at the differences between Part 4 of the Government of Wales Act and the Richard Commission recommendations, and on the ‘unfinished business’ of devolution which would remain unresolved even after a successful referendum. 

A Tomorrow’s Wales spokesperson says:  

“There is a potential for confusion over the exact nature of the powers that will be conferred on the Assembly under Part 4 of the Act, with phrases such as ‘full legislative powers’ and ‘Scottish-style Parliament’ being used without those terms being properly defined or qualified. The aim of this paper is to set out clearly what powers the Assembly would have under Part 4 and, just as importantly, what powers it wouldn’t have. While Tomorrow’s Wales firmly believes that conferring primary legislative powers on the National Assembly would be a very positive step, we think it’s important that people understand that it will still leave Wales with an inferior set of powers compared to Scotland and Northern Ireland.” 

All three papers published so far in the Devolution Briefing Paper series are available to download from the Tomorrow’s Wales website.

Both the BBC and the Western Mail report the reults of a survey of Assembly Members which found that 90% of them think the Assmebly is ready for more powers.

While it is no surprise that this standpoint is common to all Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrat AMs, is is a clear sign of how the political climate in Wales has changed over the past decade that two thirds of Conservative AMs share this view. This of course is indicative of a more general shift among the general public in favour of greater powers, as evidenced in recent research carried out by the Institute of Welsh Politics.

With the All-Wales Convention meeting for the first time next week, and a referendum promised by 2011, Tomorrow’s Wales hopes very much that those AMs who support further powers will be proactive in taking the argument for a Yes vote to their constituents over the coming period.

A historic day today, as the first Assembly Measure gains the Royal seal of approval and passes into law.

With so mucy focus on problematic LCOs, it is easy to overlook that this is just the first of several Measures currently before the Assembly: others in the pipeline include the Healthy Eating in Schools Measure, the Learner Travel Wales Measure and the Learning and Skills Measure. Half a dozen others can be expected when the First Minister announces WAG’s legislative programme for 2008/09 next week.

The passing of the first Measure, and the continuing smooth progress of others - including of course the debates and disagreements that are an essential part of good law making - show that the National Assembly is fully capable of making laws. There is no good reason therefore for continuing to restrict its ability to do accross all policy areas.  

Cymru Yfory welcomes the announcement of the members of the Executive Committee of the All-Wales Convention. We believe that the announcement marks an important milestone on the road a to proper Parliament for Wales, and hopes that the Convention will now get down to work engaging with the people of Wales. A full list of members is available here.

We are pleased to see that the Convention has attracted such high-calibre individuals to serve as members of the Executive Committee. This clearly shows that people have recognised what an important job it has to do. We are particularly pleased that three current or former members of Cymru Yfory will sit on the Executive in Paul Velerio, Paul O’Shea and the Rev. Aled Edwards. 

We now look forward to the Convention starting its work, and are confident that they will find a strong desire amongst the Welsh people to see us move to a legislative Parliament for Wales.