Yesterday I posted about Rhodri Glyn Thomas’ calls for Trident to be scrapped and how Rhodri Morgan claimed that this kind of lobbying was ‘inappropriate’. Morgan’s aides said that the Welsh government should not offer an opinion on anything that is not devolved to Wales.
Putting aside whether or not it is appropriate, I wonder if Rhodri Morgan and his cabinet do ever indulge in a bit of the old soft selling to their counterparts in London.
What about on the Welsh devolution settlement? Clearly Rhodri Morgan is not stupid. He knows as well as anyone else that the current system for devolving powers to Wales is a painfully-convoluted, time-wasting, expensive and bureaucratic nightmare whose only saving grace is that (as a result of its basic ineffectiveness) it managed to get the support of Labour MPs.
Of course Morgan is a party man, so he’s not going to publicly criticise the Labour stitch-up that has, no doubt, caused him a great deal of hassle in the last two years. But behind closed doors?
I don’t think it’s too much of a leap of imagination to believe that if he can go to Westminster demanding extra money for Wales, then he can also from time-to-time mention how awful the process of acquiring new powers is while he is there. If this does happen, perhaps Rhodri doesn’t consider it lobbying, perhaps he sees it as advising or co-operating on the next stage of devolution.
A comment to my blog post yesterday said ‘I would have been interested to see Mr Morgan under a Tory Parliament, I have a feeling he would lobby then’.
I think that may be right.
So if the Conservatives take control in Westminster, let’s see how Rhodri Morgan’s attitude to Westminster changes. Perhaps he will begin to have all kinds of opinions that have until now laid dormant.
In the meantime, however, I will keep an ear out for ‘inappropriate lobbying’ on the part of the Welsh government – Labour and Plaid – and I will keep you informed if I hear anything suspect.
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