It seems that hardly a week goes past without
one
or another
member of the Welsh government issuing dire warnings about the future of the
United Kingdom if Boris Johnson continues to ignore or over-ride the devolution
settlement. Drakeford, Gething et al increasingly remind me of Harri Webb’s budgie
– the one that squawks and squawks as it flies into a fearful rage – as they vent
their anger. There’s not much wrong with their diagnosis of the problem; power
devolved is power retained, and the problem with devolution from the outset has
been that powers enjoyed by Wales were only ever on loan and could always be
recalled.
There is a great deal wrong, however, with
their prescription. In essence, it boils down to waiting for England to elect a
Labour Government and then hoping (against all the evidence provided by decades
of experience) that that government will set up a commission to examine constitutional
options, come to an agreed position and then implement it. It’s an approach
which depends on an English Labour Government being in power for at least two –
and probably three – full five year terms, and being prepared to invest a
substantial amount of time, effort, and political capital on matters
constitutional over the whole of that period in order to deal with what will
always look from a London perspective to be the concerns of a fringe minority (aka Wales and Scotland). There is simply no appetite in England for the sort of
significant reform required and ‘England’, in this context, includes the
English Labour Party. Given the unlikelihood of a Labour government being
elected at the next election – and maybe not even the one after that, in the
light of active attempts at voter suppression by the Tories – it’s a recipe for
waiting 25 years for action, even if all the ducks, however many legs they
possess, were to line up as required.
That’s a quarter of a century to wait for
the off-chance that something might eventually change. It’s no wonder that the
alternative scenario, which is that Wales follow Scotland out of the dysfunctional
union, is gaining support. Those who expect that all this fulminating and
complaining by Labour politicians in Cardiff will eventually lead them to support
the obvious alternative should remember that budgie again. As Harri put it:
But he
won’t get out, he’ll never try it,
And a
cloth on the cage will keep him quiet.
When push comes to shove, the Labour
budgie is a remarkably well-behaved bird. And Westminster knows where to find plenty
of suitable cloths.
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