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What Assembly for Wales?

[February 1996; Socialist Outlook 97*]

Labour's proposals for a Welsh Assembly have moved to the centre-stage of Welsh politics in the last few weeks. This follows an agreement amongst Welsh Labour MPs that there will be no further discussion on the powers of an Assembly before the next election. This has attracted intense media attention and accusations that Labour's current policy is an unworkable fudge.

These developments can be traced back to last year's Welsh Labour Party Conference, which adopted a policy document on an Assembly, entitled 'Shaping the Vision'. This proposed a body with no law-making or tax-raising powers, elected by the first-past-the-post system. No provision was made for equal representation of women in such an Assembly. This stands in stark contrast to Labour's proposals for a Scottish Parliament, which will have extensive law-making and tax-gathering powers, be elected by the additional member system and ensure that 50 per cent of the seats will be held by women.

The document engendered widespread dissatisfaction within the Welsh Labour Party and led to the formation of Welsh Labour Action (WLA). Modelled on the group Scottish Labour Action, WLA aimed to strengthen the powers of an Assembly in line with those of the Scottish parliament. At the same time Ron Davies, MP for Caerffili and shadow Welsh Secretary, let it be known that be favoured electing the Assembly using proportional representation (PR).

Whilst never a character associated with the left, Ron Davies is seen by many in Wales as an antidote to the worst excesses of Blairism. In particular, his comments on education led many to conclude that a Welsh Assembly would be empowered to reject opting-out and selection on an all-Wales basis. Their confidence in Ron was further bolstered by his good showing in the recent shadow cabinet elections. However, at no time did he conduct an open fight within the party, preferring instead to try and change policy from within the Welsh Executive.

The weakness of this approach has now become apparent. A meeting of seven Welsh Labour MPs was convened in response his attempts, who made it clear that any move to change the existing policy would be met with an all-out fight Most of those involved were opposed in principle to any kind of Assembly, whilst a few were roped in on the basis of opposition to PR.

To his discredit, this motley band of seven included Llew Smith, the only Campaign Group MP in Wales. He has been a consistent opponent of a Welsh Assembly, representing as he does a tradition of left labourism in South East Wales which is both bureaucratic and British centralist. However, his current plumbed new lows, as he argued that the debate could not be reopened because Tony Blair had instructed the last Welsh conference to unite behind the current policy! He went on to explain that people could not pick and choose which parts of the policy they liked and which parts they did not.

Unsurprisingly enough Ron Davies and his supporters did not rise to the challenge thrown down by the seven, preferring instead to capitulate. Everyone agreed to unite happily behind the current policy. Ron Davies felt confident enough to declare that there would be no discussion on a Welsh Assembly at this year's Wales Labour Party conference. And this despite there being several motions to conference demanding a strengthened Assembly.

It is now more vital than ever that Welsh Labour Action maintains its stance of opposition to the current policy and pushes the debate to the floor of conference. It is also vital that we continue the task of taking the debate into the Welsh labour movement and building a network of supporters. We must also reach outward: to those in Wales outside the Labour Party who are campaigning for an Assembly and to socialists in Scotland, whose debates and experiences are far in advance of our own. Whilst it is only the Labour Party which can deliver an Assembly for Wales, the current proposals fall far short of the kind of Assembly we need.

*The version of the article here is the original draft rather than the slightly sub-edited final print version.

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