Clearly, many
people will be disappointed by the way in which the Welsh Labour government has
simply rolled over in relation to the so-called ‘Brexit power-grab’ by London. Whatever excuses they come up with, and however
they attempt to present it, they have unquestionably conceded the key principle
that London has been demanding from the outset, which is that the way to devise
common frameworks in certain areas post-Brexit is for London to do it. Insofar as London has conceded anything in
return, it is an acknowledgement that they will have to seek legislative
consent from Cardiff before imposing their framework, but they retain the right
to impose that framework even without consent.
For what it’s
worth, I never for one moment believed that they would agree to the demand from
the devolved administrations that new frameworks should be devised by
discussion and agreement rather than decided in London. After all, to the extent that there’s any
logic in Brexit at all, it is that the UK Government would be able to make its
own rules rather than have to consult with anyone else first and would never
need to compromise with all those horrid Europeans. Why on earth would they ever want to break
free of the need to consult with one group of governments only to accept a
constraint that they need to negotiate with another set of governments?
The Scottish Government
is showing rather more spine on the issue – but the strange thing is not that
the apparent unity between a Labour Government in Wales and an SNP Government
in Scotland has now been shattered, but that the unity lasted so long in the
first place. It was always an unlikely
pairing. Perhaps the Scottish Government
will be able to wring further concessions out of London; perhaps not. I suspect that London will be more willing to
simply ignore Scotland now it stands alone than it would have been had Cardiff
also held its nerve. It’s not only Wales
that Labour have let down.
The bottom
line, though, remains where it has been from the outset: power devolved is
power retained. ‘Devolution’ does not –
and never can – bestow equality of status on the devolved parliaments. Whilst London, as they have shown, would very
much prefer to have the consent and compliance of the administrations in
Cardiff and Edinburgh (who wouldn’t prefer an easy life if it’s an attainable
option?), they don’t really need that because they can – and always could –
simply legislate anyway. The ‘concession’
obtained by the Welsh Labour government doesn’t change that, and is close to
worthless.
What the whole
affair underlines, yet again, is the underlying weakness of the devolution
model and the inherent fragility of a set of powers which are only ever on loan
to Wales and which can be over-ruled at any time. If we don’t want a government in Cardiff
which is beholden to Westminster, we need to do more than simply whinge when
they do exactly what the devolution model entitles them to do.
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6 comments:
Have to disagree with you on this, John. The deal done is of course a compromise but the UK Government has moved further than the Welsh Government from its starting position. Much further in fact, effectively recognising the Welsh Government as an equal for the first time. The new legislative frameworks that all sides agree need to be created, will now be created by agreement on all sides. What the UK Government did not do, and indeed could not do, is concede the sovereignty of the Westminister Parliament. The devolved legislatures are not the equal of the Westminister because they are not, and never could be sovereign parliaments whilst the UK remains a unified state. If we want a sovereign parliament in Cardiff Bay (or Holyrood), we will have to vote to become an independent, sovereign state.
It seems to me that your comments "...effectively recognising the Welsh Government as an equal for the first time" and "The devolved legislatures are not the equal of the Westminister..." are more than a little contradictory.
I don't agree that "the UK Government has moved further than the Welsh Government from its starting position". As I read it, the deal merely puts a different form of wording around what the UK Government has been insisting on from the outset, namely the right to set up new frameworks, with or without the consent of the Assembly, before allowing the Assembly to administer within those frameworks.
But I entirely agree with "If we want a sovereign parliament ... we will have to vote to become an independent, sovereign state." Indeed, that was the point of the post. Complaining that the 'deal' reflects the reality of the constitutional settlement as it stands is pointless without going on to make the argument for a different constitutional settlement. Demanding that things shouldn't work exactly the way they're supposed to work under the present scenario is just whingeing.
John - executives and legislatures are different things. There is no contradiction in the two comments that you quote.
The legislative frameworks will now be co-designed and agreed. Which is what the Welsh (and Scottish) Governments wanted all along but which is a long way from where the UK Government started. There remains a theoretical possibility that, with the consent of the Westminister Parliament, the UK Government could seek to impose a legislative framework against the Welsh Government/Assembly's view. But the agreement makes that exceedingly unlikely. Furthermore (and this is perhaps the most important thing to come out of the agreement) the UK Governement has made a public commitment not to legislate on matters that are clearly and solely within its competence in order to placate a devolved administration. That is a pretty big concession.
I agree with your last paragraph.
I'm afraid that I remain unconvinced that Westminster has conceded as much as you claim. There is an existing convention that the central government will not legislate in devolved areas without consent, but we know from the court case over Brexit that any such convention has no real legal standing, and can be over-ruled at will. It seems to me that you are asking us to believe that a political agreement between two governments somehow gives us stronger protection; I don't buy that.
What I would agree with is that the Westminster government will seek to come to an agreement rather than legislate without such an agreement, but I think that was always going to be the case anyway. Getting an agreement rather than imposing a framework is always better from everyone's point of view, and for what it's worth, I believed from the outset that the UK Government would seek to do that. But the bottom line was always that they could and would legislate anyway in the absence of such an agreement, and on that point, nothing much has changed.
Having said that, even if the Welsh Government had got its way, and all the powers had come straight to Cardiff as they wished, the UK Government would still have had the right to over-rule them in the absence of a negotiated settlement. In that sense, it has been a storm about very little from the outset - it's almost a biggendian argument about where the apparent poweer lives, when the real power lives and will continue to live where it has always lived. But that brings me back to the real point once again: arguing about the detail detracts from the long term argument which is whether we are content as a nation to accept that all powers exercised by the Assembly are only ever 'on loan' or whether we are going to make them ours for real.
Ok,I am not going to continue the argument about the importance or otherwise of the intergovernmental agreement but for the record, I was not asking you or anyone else to believe anything -I was just stating my own opinion. On a point of order though, the the powers to which this all refers are not "returning" to Wales from anywhere. They already exist here. What the National Assembly and Welsh Ministers cannot currently do, but will of course be able to do after Brexit (or rather the tranistion/implementation phase should it happen) is use those powers in a way which is incompatible with EU law. The idea that the powers are "returning" is a amisleading description which is used by the UK Government in order to muddy the waters.
"On a point of order though, the powers to which this all refers are not "returning" to Wales from anywhere. They already exist here. What the National Assembly and Welsh Ministers cannot currently do, but will of course be able to do after Brexit (or rather the tranistion/implementation phase should it happen) is use those powers in a way which is incompatible with EU law. The idea that the powers are "returning" is a misleading description which is used by the UK Government in order to muddy the waters."
I can agree with all of that.
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