Well, who would have thought it. The Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, Cheryl Gillan issuing a press release, taking the actual Secretary of State, Peter Hain to task for not getting on with the procedures necessary to deliver a referendum on law making powers for the National Assembly. We do know that Peter Hain is not that keen on holding a referendum. Mrs Gillan tells us that Mr Hain has written on his web site the words; "a referendum held before, or in 2011 would be lost" and that further powers for the Assembly should not be granted "today or tomorrow or even next year or even the year after that."
This is an interesting development. The Labour/Plaid Coalition Government in Cardiff Bay is committed to an early referendum (preferably in 2010) - and all AMs voted in favour of setting the process in motion last month. First thing that happened (or didn't happen) was that Carwyn Jones delayed conveying the Assembly decision to Peter Hain for as long as possible. Now it seems that Peter Hain is leaving the issue gather dust on his desk. What are they playing at? Whatever the truth of all this, it seems to me significant that Cheryl Gillan is so clearly exercised about the delay in moving things along. I imagine one or two Plaid bloggers will be choking on their Corn Flakes when they read about this in tomorrow morning's papers. They will have to at their most inventive to put a negative Tory spin on this one.
7 comments:
I couldn't find Hain writing about a referendum in his web site, any chance of a link, the CG link took me to Yahoo.
So who got behind her on that one
keep it up Mrs G
Stonemason - Had to take the link to the press release off - it gave open access to my inbox. Nothing hugely noteworthy in it, but no-one would email if the world had open access to it!!
Good news
Is this the same Peter Hain who compaired Wales with Rwanda?
Judging by the latest Unemployment figures for Wales, approximately One in Ten of the Welsh Workforce is unemployed -SHOCKING!
The good people of Rwanda are probably horrified to be compaired with a third world nation like Wales
Anon> I had a recent 'run in' with Welsh Labour's minister for, inter alia, innovation. I can unfortunately report that Welsh Labour remain stuck in the wool stubborn un-listening we-know-better-when-we-actually-don't kind of thing. So, am I surprised to read the latest bad stats for Wales under Welsh Labour? Go on - take a guess! I don't know what her views r on storing over one million tons of water behind a vulnerable earth dam above a school in north Cardiff - but I dare say they would be similarly lacking in scope, understanding and common-sense. As anyone knows: water runs downhill, and one million tons of water will run with considerable force down hill as evidenced by a recent earth dam failure in Indonesia where 2 million tons of water gushed through an earth dam that sprung a leak in the middle of the night with 150 souls (including women and children) dead or missing. (Llanishen reservoir is at 45 m elevation (about 49 yards) and typically holds 1.5 million tons of water atop a hill behind an earth dam.
It is bizarre the way the Tories are pushing for a referendum side by side with Cardiff's Labour/WNP-Plaid alliance; but against Westminster Labour. Bizarre!
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