Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader, Kirsty Williams has an article on Wales Home in which she calls for cross-party co-operation to get a referendum in place by autumn 2010 so as to secure the future of devolution:
The challenge for yes campaigners is to probe beyond the party politics and ask “is it right that such decisions are made in Wales?”.
And this is perhaps the most compelling reason to hold the referendum in ‘peace time’ between ordinary elections. If held too close to the Assembly election in 2011, the question of further powers will inevitably be muddied with debate about individual policy failures of the current Assembly Government – a situation which will do nothing but play into the hands of anti-devolutionists, allowing them to twist poor governmental decisions into proof of the failure of devolution itself.
Too close to an election, this will be inescapable – we cannot expect political parties, the media and the wider public to abandon the job of holding the government to account in order to campaign for a Yes vote. There will always be arguments made, by those with vested political interests, for procrastination until the next election, or the next.
My view is that a referendum should happen in the Autumn of 2010 and the Welsh Liberal Democrats will continue to work towards this timescale. The decision should not be based on whose hands hold the levers of power that Westminster would be asked to relinquish. In this regard, a decision taken in June would be a decision born of party politics, without regard for the nation’s needs. We cannot allow stalling actors to hold Welsh democracy to political fortune any longer; it really is time for the people to speak.
Read it here.
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