The reaction to yesterday’s events over the vote to trigger a referendum on utilising the Assembly’s full powers is predictable but bizarre nevertheless.
To recap, all four parties want a referendum but the two opposition parties want to make sure that it can be won and for that reason they do not want it held on election day. It is right that this may be a decision for the future but by the time an order is laid specifying a referendum date it may be too late to reverse the process or lose the opportunity for a generation. That would not be desirable. That is why we need reassurances now.
This is not an academic argument. Outside this Cardiff Bay bubble the referendum is there to be won but it will take a masssive effort of persuading people of the case to vote yes. If we do not have all four parties on-board and concentrating entirely on winning that plebiscite then it will be lost. That is why, as a strong devolutionist, I am prepared to abstain on February 9th to ensure that we get the process right.
In this morning’s Western Mail, Plaid Cymru’s Deputy Leader says: “There are Conservative and Lib Dem AMs that are strong supporters of further devolution, and it’s hard to understand why on earth they would seek to endanger this vote over an issue that is not meant to be addressed at this stage.”
That sums up Plaid Cymru’s problem. They have lost sight of the main objective which is to secure a ‘yes’ vote. Too many of them are focussing on the trigger vote itself or on holding a referendum within the timescale set down by the One Wales Agreement. They cannot see what is going on around Wales itself. They think that the process of securing a ballot is an end unto itself, when the real objective is to win that vote and get an effective law-making Assembly that can make a difference to people’s lives.
As a footnote the comments of the First Minister in this article are really bizarre. The journalist reports that when asked why the Assembly Government had not immediately announced a vote on a referendum last month, Carwyn Jones said that the Government needed to talk to the Electoral Commission first: “A number of options were looked at in terms of how to take the process forward in an appropriate way. It quickly became clear that a trigger vote was the way of doing that.”
What I would like to know is what those other options were. As far as I know the only way of securing a referendum is by a trigger vote, whilst the One Wales Agreement is quite clear on what needs to be done. As an exercise in inanity this explanation must rank fairly high in the league table of lame political excuses over the first eleven years of this Assembly.
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