Archive for October, 2007
31st October 2007
Comrades
Yesterday an all-too prominent Welsh Labour MP accused me of being “Don Touhig in reverse” - which I think was meant as an insult - and, in true Stalinist style, a ‘wrecker” of devolution. In just three months I had somehow gone from being an ‘architect’ of the One Wales agreement to plotting its demise. I am Trotsky to Don’s Kerensky, apparently. He then walked off, shouting. Continue reading Comrades
29th October 2007
One Wales - two Labour Parties
Peter Hain’s extraordinary intervention yesterday has thrown the divisions within the Wales Labour Party into sharp relief. Last week in announcing the Chair of the All-Wales Convention the Labour First Minister said” It [the referendum] will be on or before the next election. We can see no reason to depart from that commitment.” But yesterday the Labour Secretary of State said: “I don’t see that (the referendum) in this Assembly term quite frankly.” So who and what are we meant to believe? Continue reading One Wales - two Labour Parties
25th October 2007
Heroes
It’s very rarely that the sound of Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau is to be heard on Parliament Square. But there it was, hanging in the air, with nobody singing, a half-hearted affirmation followed in quick succession by God Save the Queen in true dual flag-staff tradition.
17th October 2007
Follow the money
Who gets what, where and how was Harold Lasswell’s famous distillation of the meaning of politics. And having just heard Benn junior defending the UK Government’s decision to pay foot-and-mouth compensation to English farmers only – despite an earlier draft statement saying they would pay up for Wales and Scotland too, despite previous precedent and despite the outbreak having emanated from a UK Government laboratory – I think I know what he meant. If geo-politics in these islands used to be about ‘who rules’ it’s increasingly about ‘who pays’. We are fast moving from debates about legislative competence to cash: the Barnett Formula, corporation tax powers, borrowing powers, fiscal autonomy, the Oil Fund for Scotland, the peace dividend for northern Ireland. Continue reading Follow the money