Taking Wales Seriously
Two articles in two days about Wales in the London Guardian, one editorial and one by Michael White! What on earth’s going on?
The answer: they’ve heard the news that Welsh public opinion is now swinging strongly in favour of proper law-making powers for the National Assembly. According to the editorial the swing from opposition to support for devolved government in Wales since 1979, little more than a generation, is ‘pretty spectacular’, and is excellent news. Michael White sees it as a sign that the ‘Miserabilist tendency in the national character is on the wane’. ‘Most Welsh voters think the legislation passed by the assembly in the form of LCOs, a kind of permission slip granted by the 2006 Wales Act, are too slow and clunky. They’re right.’
Thanks for the support, Guardian. But there’s a more important lesson to be learnt from the two-articles-in-two-days story, which is that the way to get London to take Wales seriously is for us to show we’re willing to take real responsibility for steering our own course. Which is exactly what granting primary law-making powers across a wide range of policy areas means.