Welsh Laws should be made in Wales. I support rights for the Welsh speakers of England but I am totally opposed to the London based Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy, deciding from his Whitehall Office how council houses in Wales should be used. This is a negation of the devolution law which created the (sovereign) Assembly of the welsh people. When the elected assembly of a Nation has decided, after lengthy debate, consultation and even consultation with the London civil service - then its decision should be final. That is called Devolution. Murphy must go if he has not grasped that. People who live in Tŷ Gwydyr should not throw spanners in the works. (Tŷ Gwydr means glass house, Tŷ Gwydyr is the name of the Welsh Office in London)
You may have heard the news that Plaid AM Jocelyn Davies is bitterly disappointed with the progress of her LCO to allow the suspension of the Right to Buy Policy in her efforts to address the critical housing needs of Wales. She has had to submit to pressure from the Labour Party in the form of Paul Murphy and the Labour MPs from Wales who were trying every which way they could to obstruct this measure. The conclusion is that Paul Murphy now has the power of veto over this measure thus setting a precedent for future LCOs to be vetoed by the Secretary of State! This makes a complete farce of the devolution process and potentially takes us back to a worse position than the days of the Welsh Office. What it means is that despite the will of the elected representatives of Wales in the Assembly, we could be in a position where a Tory or Labour Secretary State vetoes the measure out of hand. This is reminder of Tryweryn where no MP from Wales supported the scheme and the so called representative for Wales in the Cabinet voted in favour of the scheme. No other lawmaking body in the UK has to submit to this humiliation, whether it is the Scottish Parliament or a local council formulating a by-law! So much for Labour`s Devolution .... though it is hardly a surprise.
As many people as possible should respond to the All wales Convention which will recommend one way or the other whether there should be a referendum on further powers. See the forum set up by branch memmber Michael Haggett on http://syniadau.forumotion.net or go straight to the Conventions website on http://wales.gov.uk/awcsub/awchome/?lang=en
The last thing we want to see is our opponents claiming that few people reponded and that there is little call for a referendum.
Huw
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